Inflation-busting price hikes by fat-cat energy giants branded ‘unjustifiable’ by minister

INFLATION-busting price hikes by five of the nation’s fat-cat energy giants were branded completely unjustifiable by the country’s Energy Minister yesterday.

Condemning the increases, Jesse Norman said there were no excuses as the Big Six were “protected” from higher wholesale costs because they buy power up to two years in advance.

And he told furious MPs they were piling pain onto households who were already “paying too much”.

He said: “Current practice is unacceptable.”

The blast came amid speculation the Government’s long rumoured crackdown on the sector could be unveiled as early as next week.

Insiders claim Theresa May is almost certain to ask regulators to consider a price cap on the sector – as revealed by the Sun last month.

Furious MPs yesterday said the Big Six were treating customers like “chumps”. And they attacked the Government for costing households £8 billion by failing to fix the market in the past five years.

Former Shadow Energy Secretary Caroline Flint said the Government’s repeated failures to tackle the energy giants after promising change were like a scene from hit movie “Groundhog Day”.

She said: “Today feels like Groundhog Day again – reliving the same arguments about our uncompetitive energy market, their poor customer service and ripping off customers on standard variable tariffs.

“These are points I have been making for the past six years.”

Mr Norman insisted the Government stood ready to act and would detail its plans in an upcoming policy paper.

The fierce debate came just days after E.ON blamed higher costs for an eye-watering 14 per cent price hike for electricity customers.

Yet results from the company on Tuesday showed profits soared 31 per cent despite losing 600,000 customer accounts.
Scottish and Southern Energy on Monday unveiled an eye-watering 14.9 per cent leccy price rise.