Scottish Power Announces Another Price Increase

Scottish Power has announced its second price hike of the year, with standard variable gas and electricity prices due to rise from 8 October.

Dual fuel prices will increase by an average of 3.7%, or £46, over the year. The increase will affect the 900,000 households on Scottish Power’s standard variable tariffs, but not the two-thirds of the supplier’s customers who are on fixed and other tariffs.

Those on standard variable tariffs who will be hit by the price increase will given the option to move to a fixed-price tariff.

Scottish Power attributed the price increase to a surge in wholesale energy prices, which have risen by more than 20% since April. These are the same cost pressures that led Ofgem to increase the cap on its safeguard tariff, which protects vulnerable consumers, by 4.4% at the beginning of the month, and have driven price increases from nearly all suppliers this year.

Neil Clitheroe, chief executive of Scottish Power’s retail division said: “We have seen significant increases in wholesale energy costs since April, and like others in the industry, this means that we need to increase our prices.”

This price hike follows the 5.5% average increase in bills faced by Scottish Power customers in June, which added an average of £63 to their energy costs annually.

Scottish Power is the third Big Six supplier, after British Gas and EDF, to issue a second price increase in 2018.

The government said it was "disappointing that Scottish Power has announced another price rise in its default tariff at a time customers are already paying more than they need to.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said the price increase confirmed the need for the energy price cap it will be introducing this winter, “to guarantee that consumers are protected from poor value tariffs and further bring down the £1.4bn a year that customers have been overpaying.”

Consumer watchdog Citizens Advice echoed the government’s dismay. Chief Executive Gillian Guy said another price increase was “last thing” Scottish Power customers need.

“Vulnerable people in particular will be hit by this price rise. We know that those least likely to switch, and therefore on a standard variable tariff, include the elderly, those on low incomes and people with disabilities.”

This marks the sixth month in a row that a Big Six supplier has announced a price hike.

Lauren Smith

Lauren Smith has worked as a journalist and copywriter for most of the last decade, covering technology, energy, and consumer rights, in the US and UK.

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