Heating or Eating?

UK households and in particular, Londoners should start preparing for a penny-pinching winter as British Gas has confirmed that their energy bills on the whole will go up by an unsightly 10.6%. This price hike is second in the line of the 'Big Six' energy firms after Scottish and Southern Energy announced their prices would be going up by 8.2% just over a fortnight ago. Other leading outfits are expected to take similar actions in the coming weeks. With energy bills now on the up and salaries still frozen, many may find themselves in a heat or eat predicament this winter.

These new prices are set to come into effect by November 23rd which means your bill will come just in time for Christmas if you pay for your energy on a monthly basis. Prime Minister David Cameron has actually called for people to switch energy providers to avoid the price hike. Labour leader Ed Miliband has vowed to freeze energy prices if he is to win the next general election and 62 per cent of voters questioned said this proposed policy would be the one they want.

British Gas are now playing victim to an array of criticism after it was pointed out that the firm had actually suggested in May that it would use retained profits it made from last winter as a means to delay the price hike for as long as possible. British Gas bosses have said that the reason for the price hike was due to a rise in global energy prices, the increase of prices to use the National Grid's services and taxation from the government. This is rather intriguing as British Gas have made profits of over 1 billion pounds in the first half of this year.

Despite these facts, the energy firm have insisted that they had been making losses for a number of months after the wholesale of gas rose 8 per cent. They have claimed that if the price hike did not happen now, their supply arm would be frayed by next year. Estimates gathered state that electricity bills of a typical London household will receive a 10.6% rise with the average for British households being 9.2%. Nationally, gas bills will increase by 8.4% and electricity by 10.4%.

I think it's time we all re-united ourselves with gloves, hats and scarfs.