Energy bills – live: Two in five households in fuel poverty as biggest hike in bills comes into effect
Five million households will be forced to spend at least a tenth of their budget on energy bills after the largest price rise since records began came into effect on Friday.
Bills will increase by an average of £693 a year to the cost for those on default tariffs after Ofgem’s price cap was lifted by 54 per cent.
The price rises will double the number of households in “fuel stress” – a term for those spending 10 per cent or more of their income after housing costs on energy bills – overnight from 2.5 to 5 million in England alone, according to the Resolution Foundation think tank.
A number of energy firm websites crashed on Thursday as customers rushed to take meter readings to avoid firms assigning current usage to April when rates are set to jump.
Labour leader Keir Starmer has said that today is a “significant and worrying say for millions of people”, telling Sky news that people were “tossing and turning in their beds” over how they would pay for energy price hikes.
