UK ENERGY bills are set to rise even higher, with suppliers warning of a ‘nationwide crisis’ and a 2008-style financial crash.
Several ‘providers’ including Good Energy, EDF and the trade body Energy UK have called on the government to intervene as a matter of urgency.
Stephen Fitzpatrick, the Ovo Energy boss is comparing the current situation with that in 2007 when the Northern Rock bank collapsed, leading to the downfall of the Lehman Brothers a year later, and a worldwide economic collapse.
He said that this is not the end of the energy crisis but the beginning, warning that ministers and regulators ‘have just weeks to avoid further company failures and devastating price increases.’
Fitzpatrick warned: ‘I think that it is a likely senario that there will be more market failures.’
Fitzpatrick, who has been in discussions with Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, added: ‘I’d say that anybody who has survived through to this stage has obviously been doing something right’.
In fact, the minister is being encouraged to remove the energy price cap entirely, and ruin millions of people in the process, as the only way out of the crisis for big business.
The cost of gas in wholesale markets has increased by over 500 per cent in less than a year.
The situation is a ‘nationwide crisis,’ said the chief executive of Energy UK, Emma Pinchbeck.
‘Other treasuries in Europe have already responded to the crisis, but in the UK, the energy sector is still asking if the Chancellor knows that energy bills going up by over 50 per cent in the new year is a problem for ordinary people, businesses and the economy,’ Pinchbeck said.
Nigel Pocklington, chief executive of Good Energy, a small renewable energy company, also warned the UK might hit a ‘national crisis’.
Recent increases in prices created ‘an extremely difficult operating environment for every business in the industry,’ Pocklington said.
Household energy bills could soar to a record £2,000 a year. The price cap, which eases the burden for families, might be raised by over 50 per cent in April because of unprecedented wholesale costs, according to experts.
A leading UK-based gas and electricity company says the country’s energy market could see the bankruptcy of at least 20 suppliers in the next month alone.
The cap currently reviewed is set every six months. An increase of 12 per cent in bills was authorised from October onwards, with a typical household ending up paying costs of £1,277 on a standard tariff.
Meanwhile, another announcement is slated to be made in February for a second increase in April, with a rise already unavoidable to pay for the collapse of over two dozen UK energy companies in recent months.
Since the start of September over two dozen energy suppliers have gone bust, causing thousands of job losses, and leaving millions of homes in limbo as they wait to be set up with a new supplier.
The cost of the collapse of these energy firms is to be recouped from energy bills, ruining millions of people.
- Global car production was down by nearly 10 million units this year, due to supply chain issues and a semiconductor shortage.
Research by LMC Automotive has found that there is an estimated 9.6m shortfall in global production of light vehicles.
European carmakers are considered to have suffered the most, producing three million fewer vehicles.
