Commenting on the energy price cap changes announced by Ofgem today, E.ON UK Chief Executive Michael Lewis said: 

“Today’s update has been expected for many weeks but such an increase in costs will still be deeply distressing for families up and down the country. The sad truth is this latest change to the price cap reflects the real cost of energy around the world right now, compounded by the impact of the 30 or so suppliers who failed in this market, leaving customers with a bill of billions of pounds.

“We’ve worked with Government to explore solutions to this crisis and our focus has always been on one thing: reducing the burden on customers now and for the future.

“I support the Government’s moves to provide up to £350 of general support to customers and an expansion of the Warm Home Discount Scheme (WHD) for more vulnerable consumers, reducing the burden right now and spreading the costs over several years. It doesn’t remove the spike in global price rises completely but hopefully it makes them that bit more manageable by paying them back over a longer period.

“While I welcome the support from Government, not everything that could have been done has been done and there are changes we’d like to see that would further reduce the burden on customers for the long term.

“We know some customers will struggle to pay their energy bills even after this support package and the worry is we face the same set of circumstances when the price cap is revisited in the autumn. To combat this, the government needs to go further and faster right now to make sure customers can live in warm homes not just now but over the next winter as well.

“To do that we need to turbo charge our drive towards zero carbon energy – which means getting ourselves off gas and free of international energy markets – it also means permanently removing environmental levies from electricity bills to support low carbon heating alternatives to gas and rapidly improving energy efficiency around the country which will massively reduce bills for years to come.

“There are those who say we can’t afford to get to zero carbon. They are wrong, we can’t afford not to - because becoming more self-sufficient in energy, and investing in energy efficiency to reduce consumption, are simply the best investments we can make as a country.  If we get this right, it’s not just a win for consumers it’s also a win for economic investment, for jobs creation and for levelling up across the country.”

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