Electricity prices will rise by 20 per cent within four or five years unless the Government changes course, the UK’s biggest energy supplier warned yesterday.
Rachel Fletcher, regulations director at Octopus, said the costs of Whitehall policies, including green levies to expand renewable power and nuclear, were increasing energy bills.
It comes two weeks after the energy price for a typical household rose by two per cent from £1,720 to £1,755 per year.
Appearing in front of the energy and net zero committee, Ms Fletcher said: ‘If we continue on the path we are on right now, in all likelihood electricity prices for a typical customer are going to be 20 per cent higher in four or five years’ time, and that’s even if wholesale prices halve.
‘The country as a whole at the moment is paying over £20billion a year on their electricity bills for policy costs. Now the projections are that is going to increase.’
Electricity prices will rise by 20 per cent within four or five years unless the Government changes course, the UK’s biggest energy supplier warned yesterday (Stock photo)
She said while some policies were positive, it made the UK’s electricity ‘some of the most expensive in the industrialised world’, adding: ‘It’s time we got this burden under control.’
Simone Rossi, chief executive of EDF UK, called for the easing of regulatory burdens in order to lower prices.
He said: ‘There are things we can do to reduce them.
‘From point of delivery, the cost of serving customers in the UK is about £100 per annum, and in France it is 45 euros.
‘This is driven by the fact we have very complex regulation which has become more sophisticated over the years.’
