Customers will find out just how much more they will have to pay this week
Energy bills are set to go up
This included moving 75% of the cost of the UK’s renewables obligation from household bills on to general taxation, and scrapping the energy company obligation scheme.
Campaigners have warned over an “extremely difficult winter” ahead for the most vulnerable without extra support on bills.
Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “Households need reassurance and support, not a summer of suspense.
“That means the Government must act before winter to spell out what support will be available.”
The Government has insisted that “tackling the affordability crisis is our number one priority”.
Its package of support measures so far includes a cut in the rate of VAT on attraction tickets over the summer holidays, free bus travel for children in England during August, extending the 5p-per-litre fuel duty reduction and lowering import tariffs on more than 100 types of food products.
But the lack of further action on energy bills is seen as holding back spending by cash-strapped consumers.
Economist Martin Beck, at WPI Strategy, said recent official figures showing lower retail sales in April was already a sign that “energy pressures are biting”.
“Higher petrol prices, the prospect of an increase in household energy bills in July and weakening consumer sentiment all point to a more cautious spending backdrop,” he said.