Electric bills ‘could soar 20 per cent in the next five years’, UK’s top energy supplier warns

Britain’s biggest energy supplier warned yesterday that electricity prices will rise by 20 per cent in four or five years unless the Government changes course.

Octopus regulatory director Rachel Fletcher said the costs of Whitehall policies, including green taxes on the expansion of renewable energy and nuclear power, were driving up energy bills.

It comes two weeks after the price of energy for a typical household rose from £1,720 to £1,755, a two per cent annual increase.

Speaking before the energy and net zero emissions committee, Ms Fletcher said: ‘If we continue on the path we are on now, it is likely that the typical customer’s electricity prices will be 20 per cent higher in four or five years, and that’s even if wholesale prices halve.

‘The country as a whole currently pays over £20bn a year on electricity bills in policy costs. Now the predictions are that this will increase.’

He said that although some policies were positive, this had made Britain’s electricity ‘one of the most expensive in the industrialized world’, adding: ‘It is time we got this load under control.’

Simone Rossi, chief executive of EDF UK, called for regulatory burdens to be eased to reduce prices.

“There are things we can do to reduce these,” he said.

‘From the point of delivery, the cost of serving customers in the UK is around £100 per year and €45 in France.

‘This is due to the fact that we have very complex regulations that have become more complex over the years.’