Government renews calls for energy price cuts

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd said this week that wholesale prices – what energy firms pay for gas and electricity – remain low and that she will continue to urge the industry to pass on savings to households. Join MoneySavingExpert.com's free Cheap Energy Club to see if you can cut bills now.

Rudd said she would not ease up on the big six energy firms – British Gas, EDF, E.on, Npower, SSE and Scottish Power – and said she would "like to see more progress" from the energy giants.

She added: "It's not over yet. I will continue to press the energy companies and continue to talk to them about the impact of lower wholesale prices on the bill.

"On the average bill, it's about 46% of the cost – so there are some costs which aren't going down, which are actually going up, so we have to bear that in mind.

"But actually, if you shop around most bills are £100 less than they were this time last year."

Rudd's latest comments come after she wrote to providers in June asking them to adjust their prices as a result of wholesale cuts to gas and electricity costs.