London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 15, 2025

£500 energy bills hope for families as suppliers prepare to axe April rise

£500 energy bills hope for families as suppliers prepare to axe April rise

‘85% chance price guarantee will not rise £500 in April’
Energy companies have been told to prepare for a planned rise in bills to be ditched, sparing millions of housesholds a £500 increase in April.

The gas and electricity firms have been advised by the Government to consider keeping bills at their current level of £2,500 a year, as well as the scenario that they could still rise as previously planned to £3,000.

A Treasury source told the Evening Standard: “The Government keeps all of this under review. As part of that it would be irresponsible to not cover all bases when it comes to working with stakeholders like energy firms.”

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is still finalising details of his March 15 Budget. But Money Saving Expert’s Martin Lewis believes there is now an 85 per cent chance that the Energy Price Guarantee will not rise by £500 next month.

He said that it was a “no brainer” to keep the average bill at £2,500 as it would avoid fuelling the cost-of-living crisis and inflation through higher bills. Energy companies should notifty customers “within reasonable time” of a looming price rise and April 1 is now just weeks away.

“What happened yesterday... that was the deadline for them telling the pre-payment meter providers... what the new April rates would be,” Mr Lewis told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

“What I have heard is some of the firms have kept it at the current rates.”

He added: “For firms it is easier to keep it at £2,500 and increase it to £3,000, than to reverse it the other way round and have to back pay. Now I’m hearing they have not been told that the rate is staying. They have been told that there is an attempt to keep the rate at £2,500. So we’re not at the smoking gun stage that this is definitely happening. But I would say we’re at an 85 per cent likelihood that the price won’t be going up.”

Mr Hunt has made clear that he is keeping under review the level of the Energy Price Guarantee which was introduced to protect households from exorbitant bills after the cost of gas and electricity sky-rocketed, largely due to Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

Even after the intervention, millions of households have cut back on energy use to keep bills down and make their weekly budget balance. Economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies now say the Chancellor has some room for limited give-aways in the Budget after a boost to the public finances, with a £5 billion surplus in January.

Public borrowing for 2022/23 is £30.6 billion less than predicted by the Government’s fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility.

IFS director Paul Johnson has said Mr Hunt could “very easily within these numbers extend the Energy Price Guarantee for another three months to cushion people over the first part of the next fiscal year (April to June)”.

Fuel poverty campaigners are warning that the number of households struggling to afford bills could spiral from 6.7 million to 8.4 million as a result of the planned April rise.

Meanwhile, the Chancellor received some further good news today as figures showed the UK’s giant service sector bouncing back to growth in February.

The S&P Global/CIPS UK services PMI survey showed a reading of 53.5 in February, up from 48.7 in January and slightly ahead of market expectations. Any score above 50 is considered growth. It marks the first time since August that business activity and incoming new work both expanded.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Erika Kirk Delivers Moving Tribute at White House as Trump Awards Charlie Presidential Medal of Freedom
British Food Influencer ‘Big John’ Detained in Australia After Visa Dispute
ScamBodia: The Chinese Fraud Empire Shielded by Cambodia’s Ruling Elite
French PM Suspends Macron’s Pension Reform Until After 2027 in Bid to Stabilize Government
Orange, Bouygues and Free Make €17 Billion Bid for Drahi’s Altice France Telecom Assets
Dutch Government Seizes Chipmaker After U.S. Presses for Removal of Chinese CEO
Bessent Accuses China of Dragging Down Global Economy Amid New Trade Curbs
U.S. Revokes Visas of Foreign Nationals Who ‘Celebrated’ Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
DJI Loses Appeal to Remove Pentagon’s ‘Chinese Military Company’ Label
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Australian Prime Minister’s Private Number Exposed Through AI Contact Scraper
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Australia Faces Demographic Risk as Fertility Falls to Record Low
California County Reinstates Mask Mandate in Health Facilities as Respiratory Illness Risk Rises
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
French Political Turmoil Elevates Marine Le Pen as Rassemblement National Poised for Power
China Unveils Sweeping Rare Earth Export Controls to Shield ‘National Security’
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
×