Household energy bills are set to fall by 7% when the cap is next updated in April thanks to Government measures announced in the recent budget, according to experts.<\/p>\n
Cornwall Insight predicts Ofgem will reduce the energy price cap by \u00a3117 to \u00a31,641 a year for a typical dual fuel household from April 1.<\/p>\n
This is slightly lower than its previous prediction for an 8%, or \u00a3138, reduction.<\/p>\n
Ofgem will announce its next price cap level by February 25 for the three months from April 1 to June 30.<\/p>\n
Chancellor Rachel Reeves said last November that \u00a3150 would be cut from the average household bill from April by scrapping the Energy Company Obligation (Eco) scheme introduced by the Tories in government.<\/p>\n
But Cornwall Insight said the changes would reduce the cap by about \u00a3145 a year once VAT and pricing allowances within the cap methodology are taken into account.<\/p>\n
It added that increases in charges associated with the operation and maintenance of Britain\u2019s energy networks have offset part of these savings.<\/p>\n
Wholesale prices have risen slightly since its last forecast in December, with the cost of gas particularly volatile due to \u201cgeopolitical factors\u201d, according to Cornwall Insight.<\/p>\n
However they said wholesale costs are still lower than when Ofgem set the January cap level and they expect the cap to remain \u201crelatively steady\u201d throughout 2026, \u201cwith only a small rise forecast in July\u201d.<\/p>\n
Craig Lowrey, principal consultant at Cornwall Insight, said: \u201cAny reduction in bills is positive, easing pressure at a time when affordability really matters.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the drop in policy costs, as a result of Government interventions, that is doing most of the heavy lifting and, while wholesale costs have come back into the headlines in recent weeks, the impact on April\u2019s bills is minimal.\u201d<\/p>\n
He stressed it \u201cwon\u2019t be easy\u201d to keep bills down due to the investment needed to boost the country\u2019s energy networks and infrastructure and reduce reliance on imported gas.<\/p>\n
Mr Lowrey said: \u201cThe real test will be keeping those savings going.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cInvestment is needed if we want an energy system that is more secure and resilient, after the consequences of exposure to global energy markets were made all too apparent in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, there needs to be an open conversation about the fact that such a transition will not be cost free.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: \u201cThis Government is delivering on our promise to take an average of \u00a3150 of costs off bills from April 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cOfgem will set out the final price cap figure in the usual way next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Uswitch said all households will see an adjustment in their bills form April, regardless of which supplier they are with and whether they are on a fixed or variable tariff.<\/p>\n
But it stressed: \u201cIt\u2019s important to remember this upcoming reduction is based on personal energy usage \u2013 households that use less energy will see a smaller saving, while higher-usage households will see a larger one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: \u201cHouseholds will need to keep a close eye on Ofgem\u2019s announcement next week and pay careful attention to the changes in unit costs and standing charges, rather than focus on the headline \u2018average energy bill\u2019 figure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Household energy bills are set to fall by 7% when the cap is next updated in April thanks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,158485,1294,5363,158486,47811,28422,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-433964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-cornwall-insight","tag-economy","tag-energy-bills","tag-energy-networks","tag-energy-price-cap","tag-ofgem","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}