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Scottish Power to cut energy bills by 3.3%

Tahmina Mannan
Written By:
Tahmina Mannan
Posted:
Updated:
06/01/2014

Scottish Power is to reduce energy bills by 3.3% following changes announced by the Government to cut green levies.

Customers on a standard dual fuel tariff will see a reduction of £54 on their annual bill from 31 January.

The energy giant’s announcement comes five weeks after the Government announced it will reduce the green levy commitments of the UK’s energy companies in a bid to lower fuel bills for households.

However, the 3.3% will only partly off-set a price rise of 8.6% which came into force in December 2013. The reduction will also not apply to most customers who are on fixed rate tariffs.

As a result MoneySuperMarket.com is challenging four of the ‘Big Six’ energy providers to help struggling households, and treat all customers fairly, by passing on the recent reductions in green levies to all customers, not just those on variable rate tariffs.

Only British Gas and SSE have announced that they are to pass on the savings from the reduced green levy to all their customers.

In order to help UK households benefit as intended from the changes, MoneySuperMarket has launched an official e-petition to ask the Government to force energy providers to pass on the reduction in full to all customers, even if they had previously signed up for a fixed rate tariff.

The comparison site is also calling for a clear deadline in which energy suppliers will have to implement the changes by in order to clear up the uncertainty that many UK bill payers are faced with.

Clare Francis, editor-in-chief at MoneySuperMarket, said: “We ask the Government to challenge the other energy providers to play fair and help households by passing on the full reduction to all customers. While £50 may seem like a small sum to many, it can make a real difference to those who are struggling to afford their bills.

“People are fed up with this smoke and mirrors mentality from energy firms and having to choose between eating, heating, lighting or fighting back against high bills. We encourage all energy customers to stand up and be counted by signing our e-petition to urge the Government to put pressure on energy firms to pass on the reductions to all and do it now.”

A recap of how the Big Six have reacted to Government-led changes…

• Currently only British Gas and SSE have announced that the reduction in green levies will be passed on to all customers – worth around £50 per year – regardless of what tariff they are on. All British Gas’ customers benefited from the drop in prices as of 1 January.

• EDF Energy and E.ON both said the smaller-than-expected price rises (3.9% and 3.5% respectively) reflected the Government-led changes, but only impact those on variable priced tariffs. Existing customers on fixed deals will not benefit from the Government reduction. And of course, even those on variable rate tariffs will still see their bills go up following the recent price rises.

• Scottish Power has today announced it will cut energy bills by 3.3% followinbg the reduction in the green levies. However, this does not offset the 8.6% increase that came into force in December 2013.

• npower, the energy company which passed on the biggest autumn price hike of 10.4% (making its standard priced energy bills the most expensive in the UK, according to the MoneySupermaket report), said it doesn’t expect to have to raise prices again until 2015, matching the promise made by EDF Energy. It has said it will be reviewing the current price increase to see if these could be reduced, but again this may only apply to variable tariff customers.

Click here to sign the e-petition.