Energy

Households on standard energy tariffs face a £21 hike in their bill next year to help suppliers cover coronavirus costs. But with analysts already forecasting a steep rise in the energy price cap after lockdown ends, that means in total prices could rocket by an estimated £84 a year. 

The Green Homes Grant scheme, which offers homeowners vouchers worth up to £5,000 to help cover the cost of making their homes more energy efficient, will be extended by a year.

Energy firm Utilita has agreed to pay a redress package of £500,000 after overcharging almost 40,000 of its prepayment customers. 

The new Green Homes Grant scheme is one of the Government's flagship Covid-recovery job-creation schemes, promising homeowners in England up to £5,000 free towards energy efficiency improvements. Yet it is being branded a massive flop by MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis on the back of feedback and his snapshot Twitter poll, which lays bare problems with the scheme. 

Energy firms will have to offer emergency credit to prepayment customers who are struggling to top up their meters under a package of new measures revealed by regulator Ofgem, designed to help vulnerable customers stay connected.

MoneySavingExpert.com is this week rolling out MSE Autoswitch – the first-ever free, full energy auto-compare-and-switch tool. This is the latest development for our free Cheap Energy Club, which already has 4.5 million members.

British Gas has paid £1.48 million in compensation after it failed to tell 100,000s of prepayment customers it was switching top-up providers.

Energy firm Utility Warehouse is to pay out £450,000 in refunds and compensation, after it overcharged potentially vulnerable customers last year.

Ovo Energy has agreed to pay £8.9 million after issuing inaccurate or incomplete information to 100,000s of customers, and for under and overcharging customers due to IT issues. 

The competition watchdog has approved the sale of big six energy supplier SSE's household energy business to Ovo Energy, meaning 3.5 million SSE customers are set to be moved over to Ovo after January 2020.