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Disappointed Cameron advises UK households to look for better energy deals

17 October 2013 22:55 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. British Prime Minister David Cameron has been forced to intervene in the rising energy prices’ issue by suggesting that households should keep searching for a ‘better deal’ at the energy market, APA reports quoting Press TV.

This came after British Gas followed suit by announcing an average 9.2 percent hike in gas and electricity prices becoming the second energy supplier after SSE that raised prices by 8.2 percent last week.

The Prime Minister described the price hike as “very disappointing” suggesting that customers switch energy supplier to get a better deal.

“Well I think these are very disappointing announcements by British Gas. There are things we can do,” Cameron told BBCradio.

“There are things we can do. We are intervening because we’re legislating to say these companies have to put their customers onto the lowest tariff. I think a lot of customers find it utterly baffling how many tariffs they have so we’re going to have a simpler system”, he added.

Cameron said customers should keep looking for switching their electricity or gas bill from one supplier to another. He claimed that households could save as much as £200 on their bills if they change energy supplier.

“So I’d encourage customers who are not happy with the service they’re getting and not happy with the prices to go to the switching sites online and see whether they can get a better deal”, he said.

British Gas' price hike comes just days after rival Scottish & Southern Energy announced an 8.2 percent price rise.

British Gas' gas rates will rise by 8.4 percent, with electricity going up by 10.4 percent, from November 23.

This is while energy companies blame the government for price hikes, saying it could change the status quo by omitting costs of social and environmental programs off the bills.

Meanwhile, campaigners have warned that more Britons would be forced to choose between heating and eating this winter amid an increase in the number of people who are failing to make basic ends meet.

The Prime Minister was recently urged to order an official probe into the swiftly spreading food poverty across the UK and the causes behind it.

The call was made after it emerged that the number of people turning to food banks to satisfy their hunger has tripled year-on-year with the Trussell trust charity saying it has distributed food parcels to 355,000 people in the period between April and September. This, according to the charity, is more than the whole number distributed during the last year in total.

The charity said the people are increasingly in need of food banks because low pay, welfare reform, and benefit delays have resulted in serious hardship among the nation.