Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, has asked Ofgem to crack down on inaccurate and large bills. Photograph: Ina Fassbender/AFP/Getty Images
Exclusive: Whitehall source expects bills in England, Scotland and Wales to rise by about £9 a month over the next three months
Ed Miliband has urged the energy watchdog to take swift action as it emerged that the typical energy bill could soar by more than £100 a year amid a rise in global gas prices.
A Whitehall source said they expected bills in England, Scotland and Wales to increase by about £9 a month over the next three months in another challenge to government plans to tackle the cost of living.
They blamed volatile global gas prices linked to the end of the transit deal that enabled gas to flow to Europe, through Ukraine, from Russia.
Miliband, the energy secretary, has written an urgent letter to Ofgem, saying the price rise means the energy regulator must move faster to protect consumers.
This month, gas prices hit a two-year high, exacerbated by the lack of gas storage in Britain and Europe, combined with colder weather though prices have begun to stabilise. Cornwall Insight, a consultancy which produces closely watched forecasts for the energy price cap, is set to release its latest forecast on Tuesday.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer (not seen) during a visit to Elective Orthopaedic Centre in Epsom, Surrey, January 6, 2025
BACKING private finance in the NHS should be a red line for any health secretary, campaigners charged today.
NHS England chief Amanda Pritchard told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last week that the government should “consider” using private capital to fix the NHS’s crumbling infrastructure.
Today, Health Secretary Wes Streeting faced questions on the same programme about a potential return to failed private-finance initiative (PFI) schemes, in which private firms built hospitals and high-interest repayments were made over the long term.
Mr Streeting said that he does not pretend there are not “enormous challenges” because of NHS capital shortfall, and is “very sympathetic to the argument that we should try and leverage in private finance.”
But he admitted that many of the PFI deals “did lumber the NHS with an enormous cost that it continues to bear.”
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Johnbosco Nwogbo, of campaign group We Own It, said: “Support for more private finance in our NHS should disqualify you from being health secretary.
“Many NHS trusts are still spending more on PFI debts than on medicines for patients.
GREED: Thames Water’s chief executive Chris Weston defended bosses getting £770,000 in bonuses
CAMPAIGNERS mounted further calls for Thames Water to be permanently brought into public ownership today [Friday] after the firm launched a “blatantly greedy and desperate bid” to hike bills yet again.
The firm has already been allowed to increase bills by 35 per cent over the next five years by regulator Ofwat.
Thames Water originally lobbied for a 59 per cent increase and is now asking the Competition and Markets Authority to review the decision.
On the verge of financial collapse, Thames Water sits on £19 billion of debts.
Despite this, it paid out £158.3 million in dividends last March, and attempted to award its CEO and CFO £770,000 in bonuses using customer money before being blocked by Ofwat.
Thames Water is currently waiting for a court decision on whether it will be allowed a £3.3bn creditor bailout to avoid falling into special administration at the end of March.
The loan will cost a mammoth £800m in interest and fees alone, which campaign group We Own It argues will add an extra £250 a year to household bills.
CAMPAIGNERS criticised the head of NHS England today after she backed the return of discredited private finance initiative contracts.
NHS England chief executive Amanda Pritchard floated the controversial idea as part of what she called a “radical” rethink in how Britain funds its infrastructure.
Recent data shows that the cost to repair Britain’s crumbling NHS buildings has spiralled to £13.8 billion, the highest on record.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday, Ms Pritchard said: “We need to think much more radically, particularly about capital.
“So I think we now must consider private capital investment in the NHS because if we don’t fix our buildings, if we don’t fix our technology, we’re not going to get to a place where we can really drive that long-term improvement.”
The suggestion was slammed by anti-privatisation group We Own It.
Research by the group found that the current maintenance backlog bill is dwarfed by a £44bn debt that 80 trusts still owe to private firms for historic PFI contracts signed off by Tony Blair’s government.
Families, relatives, and the legal teams of the detainees demand information from police and justice for the arrested workers. Photo: SUNTRACS/X
Organized workers have denounced the police’s brutal treatment of demonstrators before and after the protest. President Mulino has called them “terrorists”.
Over 480 people were arrested in Panama on February 12 during a national demonstration called for by trade unions and social movements. Workers and protesters took the streets to raise several issues in the country:
To protest a law intending to privatize social security (Law 163)
To honor the memory of Al Iromi Smith Rentería, a worker killed by Panamanian police on February 12, 2008
To protest Donald Trump’s expansionist statements regarding the Panama Canal
Police repression was extreme. After the police descended on the protests in Panama City, more than 100 demonstrators were injured and 15 policemen were wounded.
The Director of the Panamanian police, Jaime Fernández said, “We managed to capture 450 people,” for which reason they had to improvise “a special jail” due to the long lines of handcuffed demonstrators. Other sources report almost 480 detainees. The right-wing president, José Raúl Mulino, labeled the trade union which led the protest, the National Union of Workers of Construction and Similar Industries (SUNTRACS), a “terrorist” organization and like a “mafia” and announced that “the full weight of the law” will fall on them.
SUNTRACS denounces police brutality and demands release of detained workers
In a press conference on February 12, a representative of SUNTRACS, and a participant in the demonstrations, denounced the actions of the police. The representative stated that without trying to mediate the situation, the police “began to brutally repress” the demonstration. The workers then sought refuge in the hospital under construction. Reportedly, the police began to indiscriminately arrest workers from the construction site.
Regarding President Mulino’s statements, the SUNTRACS representative said “It’s outrageous that because we go out to protest they call us “terrorists”, as the disrespectful President [of Panama] said. [Mulino] does not respond that way to Donald Trump, despite all the threats he has made against our national territory and our country.”
Finally, he demanded the immediate release of the detained workers: “We will defend our comrades to the last consequences.”
In a press conference on February 13, a representative of SUNTRACS said that the police have not released any information about the detainees, except to certain relatives of the wounded, one of whom has undergone surgery for his injuries. He also denounced the beatings that several prisoners suffered after their apprehension.
Controversial Law 163
The law in question, which is being debated by the National Assembly, has been baptized as Law 163, which seeks to reform the current legislation on social security. SUNTRACS, along with other trade unions and social movements call the bill a clear attack on workers from the business and neoliberal groups.
Under the pretext of an economic deficit of the Social Security Fund, Law 163 seeks to:
eliminate the autonomy of the Social Security Fund
increase the retirement age by three years (60 for women and 65 for men)
increase the requirements for retirement
transfer millions in Social Security funds to private companies
and various other measures
According to SUNTRACS, one of the project’s objectives is to take money from the insured, put it in private hands, and give the elderly a very poor retirement.
“We will not allow this. We are in our legitimate right to have a promising future, and not the future they want to give us. We are going to resist.” In addition, he called for the solidarity and organization of the Panamanian people in the face of Mulino’s neoliberal onslaught.
For his part, Saúl Méndez, Secretary General of SUNTRACS, said that the bill seeks “to impose the theft of insurance money, increase the retirement age, rob pensioners and workers of their money to give it to the banks. We all want peace, but not the peace of the cemetery, the peace of misery and hunger that they want to impose on us. That is why we need unity, firmness and discipline in the face of this problem.”
