E.ON to increase prices for 1.8m customers in second rise this year

Increase of nearly 5% will add a further £55 a year for those on dual fuel tariffs.

E.ON will hit nearly 2m households with a 4.8% price rise, as it became the first of the big six suppliers to put up energy bills for a second time this year.

Some of the German firm’s customers had already been struck in April with a stealth increase of up to £50. The new price rise adds a further £55 a year for a typical dual fuel customer from 16 August.

However, the second rise is thought by industry sources to be limited to E.ON and unlikely to mark the start of a new round of price hikes by other suppliers.

E.ON blamed higher wholesale energy costs, which it said had increased by more than a fifth since its last big price rise in 2017.

Michael Lewis, the E.ON UK chief executive, said: “A number of costs have risen quite sharply and in particular we’ve experienced a hike in the price we have to pay for the energy our customers need, partly driven by the beast from the east and extreme weather conditions experienced earlier this year.”

A customer with typical energy consumption will now face an annual bill of £1,208 after the rise.

Victoria Arrington, a spokesperson for comparison site Energyhelpine, said: “This new rise is a bitter and expensive pill to swallow.”

The timing of the rise risks creating a political backlash, as the energy regulator Ofgem is bringing in the government’s cap on standard variable tariffs by the end of the year. Labour accused E.ON of wringing a profit from consumers ahead of the cap.

“Worryingly E.ON seems to be attempting to squeeze in as much profit as they can before the Tories’ half-baked price cap is finally introduced later this year after over 12 months of procrastination,” said shadow business secretary, Rebecca Long-Bailey.

News source: The Guardian