Uswitch

The energy price cap has increased by 13% today, adding an average of £221 per year to standard variable tariff customers’ energy bills. This is the first impact of the Iran war on UK energy prices, with the price cap expected to stay at around its current level for the rest of the year. What should customers do? If you’re on a standard variable tariff - or if you haven’t switched for at least a year - you’re affected by the price cap increase. But you don’t have to accept it.

Scotland is due to get three new hydroelectric power stations by the early 2030s after the energy regulator, Ofgem, gave its approval to the new projects as work continues to reduce the UK’s reliance on energy imports. With the Ukraine-Russia war and the conflict in the Middle East constricting energy supplies and significantly affecting UK energy prices, a key part of the UK’s energy strategy is to become more self-reliant and generate more of its own energy, rather than importing it.

With one week until the new energy price cap comes into effect, customers on standard variable tariffs are running out of time to avoid a 13% price spike, Uswitch has warned. Uswitch has taken to the streets of the UK to encourage customers from Edinburgh and York to Llandudno and Liverpool to run an energy comparison to see how much they could save by switching to a fixed deal.

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Ofgem has today confirmed that the energy price cap will increase by 13% for the period from 1 July to 30 September. This is the largest percentage increase of the price cap since 2024. For an average usage customer on a standard variable tariff paying by Direct Debit, this means an annual energy bill would increase from £1,641 to £1,862 per year. This is the first indication of the effect the war in the Middle East, which has caused wholesale energy prices to spike, is having on UK energy prices.

Why is the price cap likely to go up? This is the first price cap since the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East. Although it began at the end of February, the April price cap running until the end of June had already been locked in. The entire assessment period for the price cap that comes into effect in July has been running in conjunction with the Middle East conflict, so we will see how significantly the conflict has affected energy prices in the UK. How high will the price cap go?

Is the price cap going up? The price cap is almost certain to increase. This is due to the effects of the conflict in the Middle East filtering through to UK energy prices (albeit later than they might have done otherwise, because the conflict began just after the confirmation of the April to July price cap). However, the exact rate of the increase is less certain.

So energy bills are in the news again. And unfortunately that's because of the energy price cap, which sets the bills for around 60% of us that haven't moved to fixed deals, it looks like it's going to go up a really serious amount in July. Critically, not just in July, where we don't use that much energy, but it's predicted to hold that similar sort of price as we get into winter, where we really do use a lot of energy as we have the heating on.