Energy firm says bills may be cut early next year
One of the UK’s major energy suppliers has recently stated that it may be looking at cutting energy usage costs early next year if wholesale energy prices continue to fall. The price of crude oil fell earlier this year, and energy firms were slated by consumer campaign groups and officials by not responding to the drop in oil prices by cutting bills, but the energy firms said that the reason behind this was that the cost of wholesale energy was still high.
A senior official from Scottish and Southern Energy said: “If the downward trend in wholesale prices is maintained, I’m optimistic of price reductions for domestic customers during the early part of next year.” Like other energy firms the provider has increased its gas and electricity usage prices twice over the course of this year, sending the average household energy bill rocketing at a time when finances are already very strained for most households.
Ed Mayo, a senior official from the government watchdog group Consumer Focus, has been calling for swift price cuts of energy prices for some time.
However, an official from the Energy Retail Association stated: “Consumer Focus has no evidence on which to raise consumers’ expectations that a cut in energy prices is possible. This is a simplification too far. There would need to be a sustained fall in wholesale gas prices before energy companies could consider any price changes.”
Mayo has said that it is necessary for one of the big energy giants to take the first step and start reducing prices so that others would follow suit, although the regulator Ofgem has said that there is no evidence that the big six energy giants are colluding over prices.
Tags: cut, step, wholesale energy, Mayo, wholesale energy prices, watchdog
