EDF is to cut gas prices by 5.2%, but an 8.4% rise in electricity prices is coming in March

EDF ENERGY, which has more than 3.4 million customers, has announced plans to cut gas prices by 5.2 per cent from January.

The supplier will also freeze electricity prices, but only until March, when it will be raising costs by 8.4 per cent.

The energy giant also announced that pre-payment gas customers will get a 12.9 per cent cut for three months from January before a price cap, recommended by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), takes effect.

The changes mean that EDF's new standard dual-fuel direct debit price will increase by 1.2 per cent to £1,082 a year.

The variable gas price cut will affect 700,000 customers, while 200,000 pre-payment gas customers will benefit from the three-month cut from January.

For customers on standard variable tariffs, this will be the first increase in more than three years, the supplier said.

It said that electricity costs had been rising "substantially" for some time, but gas prices had not faced the same pressure.

In a statement the supplier said: "EDF Energy has worked hard to limit the impact of these [rising electricity] costs for customers through efficiency savings across the business, whilst its responsible policy of buying energy ahead of time has protected customers from the more recent volatility in wholesale energy costs.

"However non-wholesale energy costs have risen to ensure reliable supply though investment including in networks, renewables and metering."

Guy Anker of Moneysavingexpert.com said that the March price hike for EDF standard dual fuel customers is lower than expected, given what’s happening to wholesale prices, a likely result of pressures from energy regulator Ofgem.

He said: "By cutting gas and increasing electricity prices it’s gone with a different strategy to other big six firms that have announced price freezes till spring.  It may mean when they finally announce hikes, those rises are dampened down given energy firms are like sheep.

"Nevertheless, no-one should see this as good news and it should sound as a loud clarion call to any customer of any energy firm on a standard tariff to urgently check if they can save by locking into a cheap fix, as other firms are likely to follow."

This week, Ofgem published its first ever energy company league table so that consumers can see whether they are on the best tariff.

Gas and electricity suppliers are ranked to show how many customers are on their most expensive tariffs, in a bid to provide greater transparency to consumers and to show how much people can save by switching.

It comes as a Sun investigation this winter found seven in ten families were on the priciest tariffs – paying up to £389 a year more than people on their firm’s cheapest deal.

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