Energy Price Cap to rise 5% – Cornwall Insights prediction
Climate campaigners have reacted to the latest prediction of a rise in enegry bills saying “fossil fuels are costing us the earth.”
Cornwall Insights are predicting a 5% rise from April 2025 to the average household energy bills to £1,823 per annum. This is a rise of £85 from the current price cap which was set at £1,738 per year for a typical consumer.
OFGEM will announce the April cap on Tuesday 25 February.
Friends of the Earth Scotland’s oil and gas campaigner Freya Aitchison said:
“Fossil fuels are costing us the earth. The public are paying twice for the greed of fossil fuel companies, once in ever increasing energy bills and again in the climate damage caused by burning oil and gas. Politicians must be willing to rebuild this energy system which is controlled by companies who are raking in billions in profits whilst one third of Scottish homes are in fuel poverty.
“Plans for new fossil fuel projects like the gas burning power station at Peterhead or the Rosebank oil field will leave us all more vulnerable to the international price shocks like we have suffered in recent years. The sure-fire way to bring down bills for good is through a fair and fast transition to using affordable renewable energy to power our lives and a mass programme of home energy efficiency.”
Cornwall Insight release final April price cap forecast
Quotes from Dr Craig Lowrey, Principal Consultant at Cornwall Insight:
“But the reality is higher energy costs only reinforce the need to accelerate our expansion of clean, reliable energy across the UK. While building out renewables requires market reform, as well as investment and time, the alternative is to be left forever at the whim of the volatile international wholesale market, which as recent years have shown, can be a pretty expensive place to be.”
https://www.cornwall-insight.com/press-and-media/press-release/cornwall-insight-release-final-april-price-cap-forecast/
In 2023 an estimated 34% (around 861,000 households) of all households in Scotland were in fuel poverty, with 491,000 households in extreme fuel poverty.
Scottish House Condition Survey: 2023 Key Findings
https://www.gov.scot/publications/scottish-house-condition-survey-2023-key-findings/
In early 2022 SSE and Equinor submitted a planning application for a new gas burning power station with carbon capture at Peterhead, Aberdeenshire. The application is for an additional plant alongside the existing Peterhead gas burning power station, which SEPA figures show is repeatedly amongst Scotland’s biggest climate polluters.
The development poses a significant risk to Scotland’s climate commitments and will undermine a just transition for workers and communities. The Scottish Government will make the decision whether to approve this project and lock households into electricity bills driven by fossil fuel prices for energy for the next 35 years.
https://foe.scot/peterhead
Friends of the Earth Scotland is:
* Scotland’s leading environmental campaigning organisation
* An independent Scottish charity with a network of thousands of supporters and active local groups across Scotland
* Part of the largest grassroots environmental network in the world, uniting over 2 million supporters, 73 national member groups, and 5,000 local activist groups.