British regulator: Energy price cap to rise more than 80%

London, Aug. 26, (PA Media/dpa/GNA) - Britain’s gas and electricity regulator Ofgem has confirmed an 80.06% rise in the energy price cap from October. 

The move will send the yearly bill for the average household in the country from £1,971 ($2,326) to £3,549. 

The cap will come into effect for around 24 million households in England, Scotland and Wales on default energy tariffs on October 1, and will remain in place until December 31, when it will be adjusted again. 

Ofgem’s chief executive Jonathan Brearley warned of the hardship energy prices will cause this winter and urged the country’s incoming prime minister and new cabinet “to provide an additional and urgent response to continued surging energy prices.” 

The regulator said the increase reflected the continued rise in global wholesale gas prices, which began to surge as the world unlocked from the Covid-19 pandemic, and had been driven still higher to record levels by Russia slowly switching off gas supplies to Europe. 

GNA