Premium

Energy Price Cap Goes Up Again – and No, it’s Not Because of the Price of Gas

UK energy costs are set to rise again. Labour ministers claim it's due to the price of gas, but that's nonsense, says Paul Homewood: gas prices are flat in real terms. It's all green subsidies.

3 min read

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.

Source: Ofgem

Prices now are typically about 50% higher than pre-pandemic, but the RPI has also risen by a similar amount since then as well. In short, gas prices have not risen significantly in real terms in the long term.

We see a very similar picture when we look at wholesale electricity prices, which is not surprising because it is generally

Keep reading –
Donate £5 monthly
(first month £1 for new subscribers)
or £50 annually

Subscribe today to get unlimited online access, as well as our Premium newsletters and podcasts.

  • Read paywalled articles
  • Comment below the line and connect with other users
  • Watch and listen to the longer Premium version of our weekly podcast
  • Listen to every article
  • Receive Premium version of our daily newsletter
DONATE NOW

Comments

This week across the site:

Email me alerts for this discussion
Notify of

To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.

Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.

10 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Cotfordtags
Cotfordtags
1 year ago

At least two Government ministers lied to the general public in television interviews yesterday. I know these feeble peacocks are only not allowed to lie in Parliament and can spout whatever rubbish they like the rest of the time but it is not good enough. Where are the other political parties demanding that they at least apologise for their lies, but even better resign for them. How long are we going to have to put up with this bloody shower, who are the most mendacious scum ever to have sat on the front bench and when will we get proper journalists who hold them to account and call them out on their lies.

Hester
Hester
1 year ago

What is it with the Legacy Media? They cover up the above for this Government, they have with the exception of a piece in the Telegraph performed and continue to perform radio silence on the state of the economy and the real possibility the IMF will be in before 12 months is out, they have not challenged the Government as to what has happened with the Rape gang inquiry. Why? what power does Kier Starmer and co have over the Editors and supposed independent journalists at these publications?

transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago
Reply to  Hester

Probably they are all lefties these days, like everywhere else

Dinger64
Dinger64
1 year ago

Of cause they are, I’d say that’s how they all get a job in the journalism blob!

Gezza England
Gezza England
1 year ago
Reply to  Hester

The Mail had a full page article by Liam Halligan pointing out that the October budget is critical to how the bond market views the UK and yet another Rachel disaster will trigger big problems. There was also a another full page by Andrew Neil – a bit marmite to me as he can be good or he can suffer TDS and doesn’t understand who started the Ukraine war in 2014 – describing Net Zero as the most retarded policy this country has come up with.

But they do still fail to call out the government as liars over Net Zero and were uncritical of the hottest summer evah based on imaginary weather stations or those heated up by jet exhausts.

HicManemus
HicManemus
1 year ago

And when we see the inevitable run on the pound, all that oil and gas that we buy from Norway (because we stupidly don’t produce our own) the price will go through the roof.

I was listening to the mainstream news yesterday and couldn’t believe my ears when they wittered on about the cost of gas being responsible.

The MSM are culpable in aiding our government in this self-destructive doom loop.

Norfolk-Sceptic
Norfolk-Sceptic
1 year ago
Reply to  HicManemus

They don’t understand STEM subjects, Business or Human Beings.

It’s because they’ve been educated in the Arts and Humanities faculties.

There’s something illogical about that, but they don’t understand logic, or cause and effect.

Dinger64
Dinger64
1 year ago

There is no international gas price, it’s down to wether the country produces its own or not!
If Britain was developing its own north sea oil and gas, prices would fall, if it cut the EPL, prices would fall
The US pays nothing like we do for their energy because they produce a lot of their own
We import around 40%!
U.S. energy production has been greater than U.S. energy consumption in recent years. U.S. total annual energy production has exceeded total annual energy consumption since 2019. In 2023, production was about 102.83 quads and consumption was 93.59 quads.
So, lower energy prices, try convincing mad monk Millibrain!

transmissionofflame
transmissionofflame
1 year ago

I know at least two people who believe this “It’s all Putin’s fault” nonsense

Gezza England
Gezza England
1 year ago

Probably also believe with just a final push Ukraine will win the war.

Thank you for reading. Please help us keep the Daily Sceptic going by becoming a donor.