MPs tore into energy bosses today over soaring gas and electricity bills.
They demanded that “Big Six” energy companies explain why they are ramping up the cost of fuel for households across Britain by far more than the rise in wholesale prices. Senior executives from Centrica-owned British Gas, EDF, RWE npower, SSE, E.ON and Scottish Power were hauled before the Commons energy and climate change committee today amid widespread fury over hikes in bills of up to 11 per cent in London.
“Why are prices going up when wholesale prices are broadly stable?” asked Conservative MP Phillip Lee as he called for a Competition Commission review into the energy market. Labour MP John Robertson rounded on energy chiefs, saying: “The public are fed up with excuses and price rises. We want transparency and openness — which have been in short supply from energy companies.”
Former Tory Cabinet minister Peter Lilley said the energy bosses had a “duty” to tell the truth about their profits, adding: “We want chapter and verse on whether they can justify the price increases.”
An Ofgem analysis has shown that while the increases announced this autumn by some of the companies have averaged 9.1 per cent, wholesale fuel prices should have risen by only 1.7 per cent over the next 12 months — adding just £10 to the average household bill of £600.
The energy giants say that other costs, including transportation and government green and social levies, are pushing up bills. But shadow energy secretary Caroline Flint was dismissive of their arguments as a new YouGov poll showed strong backing for Labour’s proposal to freeze energy bills for 20 months if it wins power.
Seven out of 10 people say the Government should introduce measures to force energy firms to freeze prices, according to the survey commissioned by Labour. Six out of 10 people who voted Conservative in 2010 back the move, as do nearly three-quarters of Liberal Democrat supporters.
An SSE spokeswoman said: “The suggestion that wholesale costs have not risen over the last year, or the last few years, as some have claimed, is simply false.
“The average wholesale cost of energy for this year is four percent higher than it was the previous year and that in turn was higher than the year before. Wholesale costs make up around 50 per cent of the average customer’s bill.”
YouGov interviewed 1,913 adults between October 24 and 25.
