HOUSEHOLDS will enjoy cheaper energy bills this summer — but first they face a £500 hike in April, experts warn.
Regulator Ofgem will issue its price cap next week setting what it thinks is an appropriate tariff for homes.
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For the past six months the cap has been meaningless as the Government stepped in to cushion the shock by capping average bills at £2,500.
From April this will rise to £3,000.
Cornwall Insight analysts — on the money since the start of the energy crisis — said they expect Ofgem’s default tariff price cap to be £3,295 from April to June.
Because it is above the energy support scheme average customer bills will still increase by around 20 per cent.
The Government is also stopping its £400 energy rebate in March meaning households will face an even bigger hit.
Cornwall Insight said: “Already stretched households will be seeing little benefit before July.”
But falling wholesale gas prices mean forecasts for later this year have come down rapidly.
Cornwall now predicts the price cap in July will be £800 cheaper at £2,153 and £2,161 in October.
It is still much higher than the average £1,277 bill in 2021.
Recent falling gas prices are also a big bonus for the Government as it reduces the cost of its energy support scheme.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is under pressure ahead of next month’s Budget to maintain household energy bills at £2,500.
Cornwall Insight said keeping the scheme at £2,500 would cost the state £29.4billion.
Cutting support and letting customer bills rise to £3,000 would cost it £26.8billion.
Gas prices fell because a warm winter in Europe reduced consumption allowing storage to build.
Debt plight of meter families
MORE than a quarter of Brits on pre-payment meters are turning to credit cards, loans or overdrafts to afford the rising costs of essentials.
The financial hardship is almost double the rate of those households not paying for gas and electricity on PPMs, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The Government and regulators are now scrutinising the use of the meters.
The ONS also found that more than half of renters would be unable to afford an unexpected bill of £850.
But just 12 per cent of homeowners were as financially vulnerable.
Lush row is fizzing
LUSH has got in a lather after blocking one of its co-founders from selling his shares to his investment vehicle, Silverwood.
The cosmetics company has said the sale of a near 20 per cent stake for £216.8 million by Andrew Gerrie and his wife was “not compliant” with its regulations and refused to record the transfer.
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Silverwood is now taking legal action because it said the action “had no merit”.
Home cost woe
HOUSES are the most unaffordable they have been for 120 years — and the gender pay gap makes it even worse for women, a report indicates.
A typical UK house costs more than eight times average earnings, according to investment firm Schroders.
An average London house costs 11 times the capital’s typical wage — but 13 times what the average woman earns there.
Properties get cheaper the further north buyers go.
North-West homes cost six times average earnings.
But the gender gap hits all regions.
ERICSSON has become the latest tech firm to slash jobs as it lays off 1,400 workers in Sweden.
Further job cuts by the telecom kit maker are expected to be made in other countries, including the UK, in a few days.
The redundancies in Sweden are part of a broader plan to reduce costs globally.
Tech giants Facebook, Google, Twitter, Spotify have all cut thousands of jobs in recent months.
Darktrace audit
CYBER security firm Darktrace has called in auditors EY to take a fresh look at its finances after being attacked by a hedge fund.
Quintessential Capital Management last month accused it of “aggressive marketing, sales and accounting practices”.
Darktrace’s shares dropped by almost a fifth when the New York company released a dossier — after placing a big bet that the security firm’s shares would fall.
Darktrace chairman Gordon Hurst called EY’s independent review a “sign of confidence”.
Pay up at Tesco in Aldi rise
ALDI is hiring a further 2,400 workers in plans to double the number of its stores in London.
The discount supermarket currently has 60 stores in the capital and a further 990 across the UK.
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Aldi is offering property agents a finder’s fee for locating new sites within the M25 as it hunts for empty office blocks and locations for development.
The rising threat of the budget-friendly shop yesterday prompted Tesco to increase staff pay for the third time in ten months.
Britain’s biggest supermarket said it would increase shopworker pay by 72p from £10.30 an hour to £11.02.
In London it will rise from £11.02 to £11.95.
UK boss Jason Tarry said it was their biggest ever investment in hourly staff pay.
The job and pay updates comes as figures by the Centre for Retail Research showed almost 15,000 retail jobs have been lost this year already.
Brewdog for China
CRAFT beer maker Brewdog is expanding in China after signing a partnership with brewing giant Budweiser.
The maker of Nanny State and Punk IPA said it will open up to ten bars in the country in the next three years.
BrewDog co-founder James Watt had previously claimed he would “rather shoot himself in the head” than sell to a large brewer.
But he said the partnership will “enable us to get our beer into more hands.”
