Rise in energy price cap to £1,717 prompts alarm

Households in Great Britain will begin the run-up to winter with a 10% increase in their energy bills after the industry regulator increased its cap on gas and electricity prices from October.

- Jillian Ambrose

Under the new price cap, the average annual dual-fuel energy bill will rise to £1,717 a year, up £149 from £1,568, the level that has been in place since July.

The price cap is set every quarter by Ofgem, the energy regulator for Great Britain, and imposes a maximum on how much suppliers can charge the 28 million households per unit of gas and electricity.

It is expressed in terms of how much the average home would pay at this rate for their typical annual energy use, and means a cold autumn and winter could push bills higher.

The new cap is 6% lower than in the same period last year, when it rose to £1,834 between October and December. However, bills will remain above the cap set before Russia's war on Ukraine triggered a global energy market shock, when the winter price was £1,216.

Ofgem said the main drivers behind the increase equivalent to about £12 a month - were international energy market price rises due to heightened political tensions and extreme weather events.