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A council chief has led calls for zero VAT on energy bills.

A minister said the new Energy Bill is designed to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

Wholesale gas prices will be higher later in 2012, warned British Gas. The well-known energy supplier’s owners said gas costs would be 15% more expensive next winter, adding: “The trend for retail energy costs therefore remains upwards.” British Gas customers last August saw a 16 per cent rise in electricity prices and an 18% rise in gas prices.

‘Big Six’ energy supplier SSE has been fined £1.25 million for misleading customers into thinking they would get a better energy deal.

A director of a charity has said government plans to shake up Britain’s power supply market are “regressive”. Norman Kerr of Energy Action Scotland: “It is a regressive step as payments to cover the costs will take the form of blanket levies on customers’ bills and will not be based on either ability to pay or level of usage.” He favours general taxation as a way of paying for energy reforms.

The Energy Secretary says he is going to get tough on the big six energy companies. Talking to the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham, Chris Huhne also wants to help smaller companies get a share of the market. He said: “It is not fair that big energy companies can push their prices up for the vast majority of their consumers, who do not switch, while introducing cut-throat offers for new customers that stop small firms entering the market.”

The news of a suspected government U-turn on an energy efficiency scheme for homes has resulted in Channel 4’s Grand

Households have been encouraged to take additional measures including insulation to reduce their domestic fuel bills by organisations such as the Energy Saving Trust. According to Scottish Power’s website the average household will save £160 a year by installing loft and cavity wall insulation. This autumn the same company raised its gas price by 19% and electricity price by 10% – thus wiping out any savings.

As we told you on this site in August, nobody in the northern hemisphere is using heating oil in summer, so it was not surprising the price of oil slumped to below $100 a barrel last week amid fears of a world trade slowdown and low demand. However, yesterday saw the biggest one-day jump in the price of oil, going up by over $16 to finish at more than $120 a barrel, the biggest one-day jump ever recorded.

Scottish Power and Npower  have followed the other utility companies with massive price rises in gas and electricity, with gas up by around 34% and 26 %  respectively and electricity by 9% and 14%. All price rises are effective as of this week and neither firm has ruled out further price increases citing increased wholesale prices as the reason for the large increases. 

Crude oil prices were on the rise again yesterday, trading above $100 a barrel. Prices had dropped significantly after the summer peak of $147. It is thought that the slowdown in global economic activity and the increased output from countries like Saudi Arabia had been the main reasons for the decline; coupled with low demand during the summer months for heating oil.

Gas and electricity prices in Britain have climbed twice as fast as the European Union average, according to new figures released on Wednesday. Gas and electricity rose by 29.7% in the past year, compared with a 15% increase for the EU. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) statistics showed that German customers experienced a 12.2 percent price increase while their French counterparts saw their energy bills shoot up by 14 percent.