Secretary of State Grant Shapps has revealed he is “very sympathetic” towards the planned rise of energy bills by £500 in April.

He stated: “I completely recognise the argument over keeping that price guarantee in place and the chancellor and I are working very hard on it. I’m very sympathetic to making sure that we protect [the public]. We’re looking at this very, very carefully.”

This comes after it was revealed that the protection on bills from the government would drop from £2,500 to £3,000 in one month’s time.

This will see £500 more shifted onto customers – but there are reports that the Chancellor Jeremy Hunt could scrap the increase in his budget announcement in March.

This is after the cost of the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) has fallen, with gas prices going down.

The energy price cap is in place to prevent suppliers from charging customers too much for their energy. It was announced on Monday by Ofgem that it would fall to £3,280 from £4,279 in April.

Article source: https://www.energylivenews.com/2023/02/28/grant-shapps-sympathetic-to-energy-bill-concerns/