{"id":439955,"date":"2026-02-22T17:42:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T17:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/439955\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T17:42:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T17:42:07","slug":"households-set-for-lower-energy-bills-amid-price-cap-shake-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/439955\/","title":{"rendered":"Households set for lower energy bills amid price cap shake-up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Households’ energy bills<\/a> will fall by around 7% from April in a shake-up of costs after the government promised they will receive an average \u00a3150 cut.<\/p>\n

Latest predictions suggest Ofgem will reduce the energy price cap by \u00a3117 to \u00a31,641 a year for a typical dual fuel household from April 1, when it makes its announcement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said in 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

Chancellor Rachel Reeves. Credit: Adrian Dennis\/PA<\/p>\n

Customers have been warned not to expect a straight \u00a3150 discount on their bills, and that the cut will depend on the size and type of household and how much energy it uses.<\/p>\n

The reduction is expected to be primarily applied through a lower price per unit of electricity used, with households advised to look out for information from their supplier explaining this after the price cap announcement.<\/p>\n

Cornwall Insight said the changes will 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 the savings.<\/p>\n

Wholesale prices had also risen slightly since its last forecast in December, with the cost of gas particularly volatile due to \u201cgeopolitical factors\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Looking further ahead, Cornwall said wholesale costs were still lower than when Ofgem set the January cap level and it expected the cap to remain \u201crelatively steady\u201d throughout 2026, \u201cwith only a small rise forecast in July\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ned Hammond, deputy director of customer policy at Energy UK, which represents firms, said: \u201cWhile the saving will be \u00a3150 for the average household, it is important to note that the discount is applied to the unit rate. Therefore, households will experience significantly different savings depending on their energy consumption, some much higher and others substantially lower than \u00a3150.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn addition, other moving parts, such as network charges and wholesale costs, mean energy bills will not necessarily fall in line with the saving provided. Indeed, the price cap is projected to drop by around \u00a3115 from 1 April.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which? energy editor Emily Seymour said: \u201cHouseholds can expect a significant cut to their energy bills in April, which will come as a relief to millions of people struggling with cost-of-living pressures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bulk of this change is expected to be applied to your electricity price per unit, so your exact savings will depend on your usage; look out for communications from your energy provider in the coming weeks to see how it will affect your bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, urged households to note the changes in unit costs and standing charges, rather than focus on the headline \u201caverage energy bill\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe know that energy bills can be confusing and trying to decide when to switch tariffs or change supplier is a big decision which can overwhelm people.”<\/p>\n

From Westminster to Washington DC – our political experts are across all the latest key talking points. Listen to the latest episode below… <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Households’ energy bills will fall by around 7% from April in a shake-up of costs after the government…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-439955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439955","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=439955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}