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Owners of British Gas, Centrica, have posted profits of £5m a day but despite this raised gas prices by 35% on Wednesday. Age Concern has warned that many pensioners will be unable to pay their winter fuel bills. As gas and oil production in the North Sea falls and the world wholesale prices continually rise, it will difficult for many hard-pressed consumers to save on their heating bills just by shopping around for the best supplier.

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.

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. 

In a bid to support the Welsh economy, the country’s government has decided to actually cut the planned energy efficiency levels for new buildings, from the projected 40% to just 8%, thus reducing the overall costs of building a new home by around 4,000 pounds.

Despite being heavily promoted by the UK Government, the Green Deal programme is apparently not enjoying a particularly impressive level of success, with only three households across the UK reportedly finalizing the loaning process for energy saving measures.

Home owners and renters across the UK might be forced to pay hundreds of pounds more on their energy bills by the end of next year, a new market report reveals.

The debate regarding shale gas exploration and the future of UK’s energy reserves remains a pretty heated one, and it seems that yet another expert has joined the group lobbying for extensive exploration.

Trade association Energy UK publicly asked Climate Change Minister Greg Barker to help impose a higher level of efficiency for the Government’s flagship energy efficiency schemes – the Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation (ECO), a news report reveals.

The Green Deal scheme, set to run until March 2014, is quite far from having reached its full potential, very few home-owners actually signing-up to the UK government’s programme.

Home owners who decide to invest in energy-efficiency measures for their properties should actually get more incentives in order to do so, such as a reduction in the overall council tax bill and stamp duty, campaigners from the UK Green Building Council argued.

Energy firm E.ON has been slapped with a £3m fine after failing to comply with their reporting obligations under the government’s carbon emissions reduction target (Cert) programme, a news report in the media reveals.

The UK government has recently revealed the fact that it plans to redefine the concept of fuel poverty by taking into account the Low Income High Costs (LIHC) framework that was recommended by Professor Hills in his Independent review.   According to the