Energy giant RWE npower heaped more pressure on households today by hiking electricity and gas prices by 9.3% and 11.1% respectively from December 1. The 10% average bill increase will affect about 3.1 million customers, the group said, and follows recent price hikes by British Gas and SSE. The announcement came as Britain sealed a deal with French energy EDF to build the first nuclear power station in a generation at Hinkley Point in Somerset, after lengthy wrangling over taxpayer subsidies. Npower blamed the higher cost of delivering power to homes, meeting Government schemes and rising fuel costs, insisting it makes a fair return for delivering reliable energy to consumers. The price hike will mean an average dual fuel customers bill rises by £137 a year, from £1,323 to £1,459. Npower, the third of the so-called Big Six to drive through bill increases, also raised tariffs by 8.9% last November. Mark Todd, director of price comparison service energy helpline, said: This is devastating news and is proof to cash-strapped consumers that customer loyalty reaps no benefits. The truth is that there is nowhere to hide from the energy hikes and more suppliers are set to follow suit. Bill hikes will add more upward pressure to stubbornly high inflation, which currently stands as 2.7%, far outstripping average wage growth of just 0.7%. Npower insisted more than 500,000 customers on fixed contracts will not be affected. British Gas recently announced it is hiking electricity bills by 10.4% and gas tariffs by 8.4% - affecting 7.8 million households - while SSE said it is hitting seven million customers with an 8.2% rise. Customer-owned energy firm Co-operative Energy also recently announced a tariff hike of 4.5%, and called on its larger rivals to put customers before profits, saying it was absorbing some of the increasing costs of buying wholesale energy.
Posted on: Mon, 21 Oct 2013 09:23:11 +0000
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