Energy Price Cap Goes Up Again

And no, it’s not because of the price of gas

Ofgem has just announced that the energy price cap will go up by 2% on October 1st. Since the election last year, electricity unit prices have increased by 7.6%, equivalent to about £75 per year for the average household.

This is in stark contrast to Labour’s election pledge to cut electricity bills by £300 a year.

As usual the commentariat have fallen for the Government line that prices are so high because of the 'high price' of natural gas and that we must switch to renewables which are 'cheaper'. The Paymaster-General, Nick Thomas-Symonds, for instance, was wheeled out in the TV studios to claim:

The energy price cap, at the level it is, is essentially because we still have the wholesale price of gas 75% higher today than it was before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. That is why we need to get off the fossil fuels price rollercoaster.

Mr Thomas-Symonds is being economical with the truth, as he is comparing with 2020-21, when energy prices were at rock-bottom because of the Covid lockdowns which decimated demand, as the Ofgem chart below shows.