British energy firm hikes gas, power prices

LONDON: British energy company SSE has ramped up its domestic electricity and gas prices, fueling a political row over the high cost of living.
The group announced in a statement that it would increase its household electricity and gas tariffs by an average 8.2 percent from Nov. 15.
SSE has become the first of Britain’s ‘Big Six’ energy providers to raise prices ahead of Britain’s winter, which is the peak demand season for energy.
The London-listed company, which has about 9.5 million customer accounts in Britain, blamed the hike on increases to the cost of buying and delivering wholesale energy as well as government levies.
“We’re sorry we have to do this. We’ve done as much as we could to keep prices down,” said Will Morris, SSE managing director of retail.
Ed Miliband, leader of the main opposition Labour party, has vowed to freeze domestic energy prices for 20 months if he wins the next general election in 2015, as part of efforts to combat what he calls a “cost of living crisis” in Britain.


However, Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has condemned the promise as a “gimmick” that harked back to “1970s-style socialism,” while some analysts argue that the policy could spark blackouts.
Cameron’s spokesman said the prime minister “really, really” understood the pressure on family budgets.
“Of course you would expect the government to always be looking at what more can be done to help hard-working families,” the spokesman said.
Meanwhile SSE last month revealed that it made a loss on its retail operations over the summer due to rising wholesale gas prices.
SSE, which trades as Southern Electric, Swalec and Scottish Hydro, said Thursday’s price hike equated to a weekly increase of about £2 ($3, 2.4 euros) for a typical customer taking both its gas and electricity.
SSE, which was formerly known as Scottish & Southern Electric, added that levies to fund low-carbon generation and energy efficiency had risen sharply.
However, the coalition government’s Energy Secretary Ed Davey hit back, arguing that the levies were far outweighed by wholesale prices — and suggested that customers should look elsewhere for cheaper bills.
“This is clearly unwelcome news for customers of SSE,” said Davey in response.
“People should take the opportunity now to make sure they are on the best deal available to them.”
Britain’s ‘Big Six’ domestic energy suppliers comprise Centrica’s British Gas division, EDF Energy, E.ON, Npower, Scottish Power and SSE.
The nation’s market for domestic gas and electricity supplies was deregulated in the late 1990s, in a bid to encourage competition and drive down prices.