The company is the latest of the big 6 energy firms to hike prices but said the increase was less than “half” the size of increases announced by competitors.

EDF Energy said its new standard variable price will be between £80 and £96 lower than competitors who have recently announced price increases.

E.ON is the only major energy firm yet to confirm a rise among the major players.

SSE’s price increase will be the first to come into effect from Friday 15 November.

MoneySuperMarket.com said an average 8.2% hike will strike 7.3 million customers.

“As this deadline looms we’re urging those SSE customers who will see their prices rise to move to a better-value fixed rate deal now.

“We’ve worked out that someone who didn’t switch to a better deal when SSE announced its rise, but who switches now and waits for six weeks for their switch to go through, will still end up paying £50 more over that 11-week period than someone who has been on a better tariff all that time. So the message has to be, the sooner you switch, the better,” said Kevin Pratt, MoneySuperMarket.com’s energy spokesperson.

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