12 Facts: Why Energy Bills Are Sky High, And What We Can Do About It

The Labour Party want your energy bills to rise by £125. The Conservatives will help you keep warm this winter.

1. So your energy bills have probably DOUBLED in the last 10 years. Even if you use less energy:

ONS / Via ons.gov.uk

Labour MPs who are tweeting about energy bills go very quiet, when you show them this graph.

The big structural rises in your bills started in late 2003.

2. This is partly because, in the last 10 years, wholesale gas prices are up 240%:

OFGEM / Via ofgem.gov.uk

Britain is an island. We now have to import gas and other fuels. Over the last 10 years, wholesale gas prices are up 240% and wholesale electricity prices are up 140%.

3. AND Labour didn’t build a single new nuclear plant, to shield us from those price-rises:

FLICKR / Via Flickr: deerleap

Labour ducked this issue. They didn't build a single new nuclear power plant.

Conservatives are tackling this. ‘Hinkley Point C’ will be the first new nuclear plant in the UK in 20 years following a deal between the Government and energy firm EDF.

This means new jobs, as well as ‘home-grown’ electricity that could power an area twice the size of London.

4. AND, Labour destroyed competition. They squeezed 14 energy firms down to just the ‘Big Six’:

OFGEM / Via ofgem.gov.uk

Labour saddled us with just the ‘Big Six’: concentrating power in the hands of a few giant firms.

Conservatives are turning that around, with several new independent suppliers entering the market in the last two years.

To boost competition, we have also asked the OFT, Ofgem and the new Competition Markets Authority to look under the bonnet of the energy market each year, to see how easy it is for families to get the best deal.

5. AND Labour let the energy market get really confusing, with more than 4,000 different tariffs:

Which? research found that Labour left us 4,000 tariffs on the market. This confused customers looking for the best deal. (Tariffs are down to more like 400 now.)

6. The result? Labour left 2 million more households in fuel poverty:

DECC / Via decc.gov.uk

In the last five years of Labour, 2 million more households were dragged into fuel poverty in England. This hit the poorest the hardest.

7. So, this is how your bill breaks down today:

OFGEM / Via ofgem.gov.uk

Roughly half of your bill goes on ‘wholesale costs’.

Britain has to import gas and other fuels from the market.

We can’t freeze these prices. We have to pay the going rate.

8. The fastest way you can save money today is by switching your provider:

If you haven't switched your energy supplier in a while, there’s a good chance you could save money. Check out USwitch. You could save more than £250 a year.

9. Ed Miliband attacks switching as a ‘con’. But that’s exactly what he did himself!

FLICKR / Via Flickr: anthonymck

Ed Miliband shouted recently in PMQs: ‘I will tell the Prime Minister what is a con: telling people…that the answer was to switch suppliers!’

But, what did we discover in the last few days? Ed Miliband actually switched his OWN supplier, hoping to cut his own private bills.

Typical, isn't it? The same old Labour Party. They attack the Government's policy for the TV cameras, but then they go home and adopt that policy themselves.

10. Even now, Ed Miliband wants your bills to rise by ANOTHER £125 a year:

Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images

Labour haven’t changed. They still care more about green taxes than people who are struggling to stay warm.

Just a few days ago, Ed Miliband ordered his politicians in the House of Lords to vote for ‘decarbonising the power sector by 2030’.

Independent research shows this means more carbon taxes, and you would pay the price. Labour’s plan would cost Britain an extra £7.5 billion a year, adding around £125 to your household bills.

11. That’s right. Ed Miliband is demanding your bills must rise by £125 a year! Madness:

FLICKR / Via Flickr: 53004883@N02

Even moderate Labour people have been shocked by Ed Miliband’s demands.

Labour peer Lord Donoghue recently felt forced to speak out against his own party for the first time in 28 years, for example. He broke his silence, saying:

‘I have never spoken against a Labour amendment in my 28 years in this House, but I propose to do so today because I am troubled by this misguided amendment... These policies hurt the poor, given rocketing energy prices... [Labour’s] amendment will, most probably, raise the cost of living... I cannot see why I, as a Labour person, should support the amendment: it hits jobs and is likely to increase fuel poverty’.

He’s right.

But Ed Miliband isn't listening.

12. The Conservatives will help you to keep warm this winter:

FLICKR / Via Flickr: fortunate1

Here are six ways the Government is taking action, to help you with your energy bills this winter:

• Helping you get the cheapest deal on electricity. Through the Energy Bill we are taking steps to help people get the best energy deal. This could save you as much as £158.

• Reviewing green levies. These levies add £112 to the average energy bill and we will set out plans to cut this number in the Autumn Statement. Energy bosses say they will pass this saving onto consumers.

• A £135 discount on electricity bills for the most vulnerable. A £135 discount on electricity bills is available to 2 million low income and vulnerable households thanks to our Warm Homes discount.

• Protected winter fuel payments for 12.7 million pensioners. We have protected winter fuel payments worth £200 to £300 for 12.7 million pensioners.

•Cold weather payments for over 4 million people. We have increased funding for Cold weather payments by £50 million. They are now worth £25 per payment for over 4 million people.

• New funding for energy saving improvements in homes. People can now make energy saving improvements to their homes with no upfront cost through the Green Deal.