Energy bills could rise by as much as £800 when the price cap is reset in October, the former boss of energy company NPower has warned.

Speaking to LBC, Paul Massara said: “The reality is that the price cap has protected people through the winter period, but now it has come back and it’s biting.

“A £700 to £2,000 rise is incredibly large and for those people most in need, those people most vulnerable, who are trying to budget day by day essentially, this is going to be a massive shock.”

He added: “And what’s worse is that the forward look seems to be that in October when the cap is reset again we could be anywhere between another £400 to £800,”

Households will have to pay an extra £60 a year on top of their water bills to pay to fix Britain’s ageing sewers, The Daily Mail has reported.

Ordinary families will have to take on the extra burden despite water companies making hundreds of millions of pounds in profit.

United Utilities made £602 million in operating profits last year, with its chief executive Steve Mogford earning £2.94 million in the financial year 2020/21, the paper reported.

Thames Water made £488 million in profits last year.

Water companies also dumped sewage more than 370,000 times into rivers last year.

Environment secretary George Eustice said yesterday that sewage dumping into rivers and streams would be reduced by 80 per cent by 2050.

He said: “Today, we are setting specific targets to ensure that those storm overflows are used only in exceptional circumstances – delivering on our Environment Act and building on wider work on water quality.”

The UK currently has an estimated nine million households on green energy tariffs, who might expect to be shielded from spiraling wholesale gas prices. So why are they still being affected by rising costs? Joe Sommerlad explains.

The fact is that opting for a green tariff does not mean that the electricity you receive comes exclusively from renewable projects like solar plants and offshore turbines.

Instead, the electricity you are supplied with is precisely the same as that of your neighbour on a standard tariff because all providers rely on the National Grid.

He announced that all domestic energy customers would be entitled to a one-off £200 discount on their power bills that will be applied automatically from October and paid back in £40 instalments over five years.

He also said that every homeowner with a property graded in bands A to D would be entitled to a £150 council tax rebate, a measure intended to help out 80 per cent of homes in England and for which homeowners do not need to apply.

Read more about the measures here:

Labour leader Keir Starmer has criticised the government’s help with the cost of living crisis as “pathetic”. He hit out at the decision to hike national insurance rates, saying it is “the wrong tax at the wrong time”.

He added: “For the Government to decide to impose more tax in national insurance, now is the wrong time. It’s the wrong tax at the wrong time.

“I think most people are clear that … the Government really needed to step up in its spring statement last week. They failed to do so and their response is frankly pathetic on a very, very difficult day for millions of people.

“Energy bills are going up far more than we’ve ever seen on record. People are really struggling and I just don’t think the Government gets it.”

Labour leader Keir Starmer has said that today is a “significant and worrying say for millions of people”, telling Sky news that people were “tossing and turning in their beds” over how they would pay for energy price hikes.

He added: “I’ve spoken to people tossing and turning in their beds about how they’re going to pay for this.

“What we say as the Labour Party is, look, oil and gas companies in the North Sea have made more profit than they have expected because global prices have been high.

“Therefore, we should have a windfall tax on that and use it to reduce those bills by up to £600 for those that need it most.

“So, there’s a very practical plan on the table – the only plan on the table, quite frankly.”

The energy price cap is the maximum amount a utility company can charge an average customer in the UK per year for the amount of electricity and gas they use, preventing businesses from simply passing on cost increases to the consumer, writes Joe Sommerlad.

But the cap, set by the regulator Ofgem and first introduced in January 2019, only applies to customers who are on a standard variable tariff, typically a provider’s default and most expensive option.

From 1 April, the cap will rise from £1,277 to £1,971 for a household on average usage. That means a £693 per year increase for the average customer.

Energy firm E.ON appeared to blame money saving expert Martin Lewis yesterday after suppliers’ websites crashed ahead of Friday’s price hikes.

E.ON, British Gas and EF were among the sites struggling to deal with demand yesterday morning.

E.ON posted a tweet, responding to questions customers had raised about meter readings. It said: “Unfortunately the website and phone lines of every supplier are being hammered today.

“Martin has once again created unprecedented demand bringing down Britain. If you respond to our private message providing the details requested then we can assist you.”

Read the full story here:

Kit Malthouse, a minister in the Home Office, has said that he recognised the situation around soaring energy prices and other cost of living pressures was “very tough”.

Speaking to Sky News, he said: “It is very tough at the moment.

“We completely acknowledge that a combination of factors has meant that prices are rising significantly, energy prices in particular, driven by a variety of factors – post-pandemic, the war in Ukraine, other kinds of global factors outside of our immediate control – and it is tough.

“For those of us who have a smart meter, as we do here in my house, we can see how much it is costing us on an hourly basis, and it is not happy reading.”

Protesters from climate group Just Stop Oil have blocked several “key oil” terminals across the UK forcing Exxon Mobil, one of the country’s largest privately owned underground oil pipeline distribution networks, to temporarily suspend operations at some of its sites.

The oil giant confirmed that “small protests” were underway at their Hythe, Birmingham and West London fuel terminals.

Sites in Essex and Hertfordshire are also affected and Essex Police said six people had been arrested.

Read the breaking news story here: