Millions face shock New Year’s Day hike in energy bills
https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/millions-face-shock-new-years-day-hike-energy-bills
A household energy bill displayed on a mobile phone held next to a gas hobMILLIONS face a shock New Year’s Day hike in energy bills — to pay for nuclear expansion projects even while wholesale prices fall.
Industry “regulator” Ofgem announced today a surprise increase in gas and electricity costs from January.
Campaigners urged Chancellor Rachel Reeves to act in her Budget to help struggling families as freezing winter temperatures bite.
The government’s cap on energy prices is to go up by 0.2 per cent in the three months to March.
End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis said: “Energy bills remain stubbornly high as households face a fifth winter of the energy costs crisis. Today’s announcement sees standing charges rise yet again, highlighting the structural problems in how energy is paid for.
“The addition of a new levy on bills which pays for nuclear power stations is unwelcome and could have been delayed until closer to when these plants actually start to generate electricity.”
The government this summer announced that taxpayers will effectively underwrite a private investment deal worth more than £38 billion to build Britain’s biggest nuclear project in a generation at the Sizewell C site on the Suffolk coast.
Billpayers face paying £1 a month for the costs from this winter until the project is complete under a funding mechanism that shields Sizewell’s investors from the impact of any delays — even if the total cost spirals to as much as £47bn.
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https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/millions-face-shock-new-years-day-hike-energy-bills
dizzy: Nuclear power is too expensive, we can’t afford it. There’s also the problem that it produces waste that remains dangerously radioactive essentially for ever.
An elderly lady with her electric fire on at home in Liverpool
