As British Gas Prepare To Raise Prices By 18%, Grab A Fixed Price Energy At Once

On 8 July 2011 British Gas announced that their rates will go up by 18% on gas and 16% on electricity as of 18th August, affecting close to 11M domestic energy purchasers. The supplier has put this down to escalating wholesale and distribution expenses as the key purpose of the rises. British Gas is Great Britain's biggest gas supplier with around 40 percent of Great Britain's domestic market.

Director of the independent price comparison website energyhelpline.com, Mark Todd, stated: "This price rise is worse than predicted and an absolute nightmare for UK homeowners. Many thought that ScottishPower's price rise was as bad as it could get, but unfortunately British Gas"s is even bigger. It will mean around 190 extra on an average annual bill*. Typical British Gas bills will rise from 1,065 to 1,255 a year"

He encourages home owners to get on top of the issue if they wished to cover themselves from further price pain on energy payments and make sure that they have deal as quickly.

"Householders can still avoid the pain of price rises as they can switch to a fixed price deal that guarantees no price rises for up to 3 years. Switching to a fixed tariff now is expected to save the typical home 643 on their energy bill between now and 2014."

"The cheapest fixed price energy tariffs currently cost around 1,000 a year. These fix gas and electricity bills for around a year. The expected savings off these deals are around 250-300. Longer fixed price energy deals are available that can fix bills into 2014 or even 2015. These fixed price tariffs typically cost more, around 1,050-1,100, but as they offer a longer period of no price rises they will probably work out the cheapest in the long run."

"If customers want a low cost fixed price gas and electricity deal they will need to act fast. There is limited availability of the best tariffs and they are filling up fast."

"The easiest way for a customer to save money on their energy bills is to switch gas and electricity suppliers using a price comparison website. Energy price comparison websites compare all the UK's energy deals for customers in just a few minutes. To get a quote a customer just needs their post code and some simple details like current energy supplier, tariff name and spend. These details are normally readily available on a customer's energy bill."

Furthermore Todd stated:

"Even though this inflation-busting rise was trailed for a number of weeks, it will still come as a hammer-blow to the 16 million British Gas customers. Many ordinary people will feel that they are being hit at precisely the moment they can least afford it as this year has seen the biggest squeeze on household disposable incomes for decades."

"This will be British Gas's second price rise in eight months and takes the aggregate total bill increase to 25%. Many customers calling our switching helpline are very upset. They feel that energy prices just keep going up and are fearful about not being able to heat their homes this winter."

"Now that British Gas has followed ScottishPower's lead, other energy suppliers are very likely to follow soon. We are expecting a flood of gas and electricity price rises over the summer."

Mark Todd is the co-founder of the independent price comparison site for gas and electricity rates; energyhelpline.com.