4th March 2010
Scottish and Southern Energy is to cut its prices for gas by 4%
from the end of March, a saving of £30 off the average bill.
It is the second major supplier to announce a cut so far this
year and the reduction will see its average annual dual fuel bill
drop from £1,192 to £1,162.
The move comes just weeks after Britain's biggest supplier
British Gas reduced its gas prices by 5.5%. Taking last year's
reductions into account, Scottish and Southern Energy has now
slashed prices by 8% in total, while British Gas has carved 13 in
total off bills. But in terms of impact on bills, British Gas is
now only £4 a year cheaper than its rival.
However, households are still facing far higher energy bills
than just a couple of years ago. In 2008 Scottish and Southern
Energy increased its prices by 44% or £384, taking its average bill
from £875 to £1,259. Even after today's price cut, its average bill
will be £1,162 - £287 or 33% higher than at the beginning of
2008.
Even after today's price cut, SSE's
average bill will be £1,162 - £287 or 33% higher than at the
beginning of 2008.
Ann Robinson, Director of Consumer Policy at uSwitch.com, says:
"This is great news for consumers - at the moment it's just a two
horse race, but today's move should tip the balance in favour of
more suppliers joining the field with price cuts of their own. The
fact that the country's two biggest suppliers have acted to bring
their prices down will put more pressure on the remaining four
suppliers to do the same, but there are still no
guarantees.
"Although these reductions are welcome it's important that
consumers don't become complacent. Energy prices are still far
higher than just a couple of years ago and the price cuts we've
seen to date are not going to make up this ground. Prices increased
by £381 in 2008 and suppliers cut prices by £54 last year. Even
taking into account cuts this year, we still expect household
energy bills to end up around £300 higher than two years ago
putting even more emphasis on the need for consumers to start
managing their energy costs.
"We can all do this by making sure we pay the lowest possible
price for our energy and learning to use less of it. Online energy
plans consistently offer the most competitive prices - currently
costing around £300 a year less than suppliers' standard plans and
offering households a real opportunity to take their energy bills
back to pre-2008 levels."
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