New Ofgem price cap due to be announced before weekend will see energy bills fall from April

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Households are set to learn that their energy bills will fall to their lowest level in more than two years from the start of April in some long-awaited good news amid the cost of living crisis.

Ofgem will announce its latest price cap on Friday at 7am, with energy consultancy Cornwall Insight predicting the regulator will lower it by around £293 a year.That would see the typical household's bill falling from £1,928 per year to £1,635 from April 1, a drop of around 15 per cent.

Cornwall Insight's forecast, which noted that the UK's energy prices look to have weathered disruption in the Red Sea, is normally very close to Ofgem's announcement, as both are based on publicly available data.However, the firm warned that as long as the UK is reliant on fossil fuels it will have to continue importing expensive gas from countries which could decide to stop selling to Britain.While the forecast from Cornwall is considerably lower than the current price cap, it is marginally higher than the £1,620 that the consultancy forecast just over a month ago.Cornwall Insight principal consultant Dr Craig Lowrey said that despite the predicted fall, prices would remain a struggle for many and remained hundreds of pounds above pre-pandemic levels.Ofgem recently announced that energy suppliers will soon have to pay customers £30 if they fail to complete their switch to another firm within five days.

It said switching rates continued to increase each month, and it wanted to “empower” customers to take control of their energy bills.As part of an energy supplier’s licence, a firm has to switch a customer’s electricity or gas supply within five working days from the date of the request.