EDF customers face higher bills
July 26, 2008
EDF Energy has announced it is putting up gas prices by 22% and electricity prices by 17% for domestic customers.
The firm has blamed the increase, which comes into effect on 25 July, on record wholesale energy costs.
Energy companies have been widely expected to raise the costs of utility bills this summer, as wholesale prices have been rising.
EDF is the first of the major suppliers to raise prices this summer and others are expected to follow suit.
The company said it had been absorbing higher costs in recent months but it now needed to pass on costs to domestic and small business customers.
It is the second rise for EDF customers this year.
Tim Wolfenden, head of home services at price comparison website Uswitch.com, estimated that the average annual bill for dual-fuel EDF customers would rise by £200 to just over £1,200.
Call for action on payday loans
July 26, 2008
Debt advice groups are calling for urgent action over payday loans that charge extremely high interest rates.
They want the market regulator to make lenders behave responsibly, as some companies have lent money at a rate equivalent to almost 2,000% annually.
Payday loans typically involve a lender advancing a customer cash, usually for a month, against a post-dated cheque.
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) said they would be covered by investigations of the issue of responsible lending.
Although the loans, often used by people to tide themselves over until they get their wages, generally attract high rates of interest, the businesses offering them are properly licensed and they say they are professional and responsible.
One company providing payday loans, The Money Shop, told BBC Breakfast it offered a valuable service to those “who may alternatively be faced with high unauthorised overdraft costs”.
It said the cost of its lending products reflected the levels of risks it took.
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Prepay energy meters are ‘unjust’
July 19, 2008
Millions of UK households are paying energy tariffs that are “unjust”, the Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks has said.
Mr Wicks said he would be prepared to legislate to force energy providers to lower their charges for the four million people on pre-payment meters.
Pre-payment tariffs can be up to 70% higher than the lowest rates available, said charity National Energy Action.
Mr Wicks said he had asked energy watchdog Ofgem to investigate the matter and report back.
Mr Wicks said: “The extra costs that people on pre-payment meters are now having to meet seem totally disproportionate.
“The gap between what they’re paying and what other people are paying has grown to a very unjust extent.
“Depending on what the report says, we’re well prepared to legislate to ensure this injustice doesn’t occur in the future.”
Soaring oil prices could push energy bills up by more than 60% within the next few years, according to a report for the energy supplier Centrica.
This has led to concerns that consumers are having pre-payment meters installed because they cannot afford their energy bills.
Mortgage squeeze tightens further
July 19, 2008
The mortgage squeeze is continuing to tighten with a further drop in lending, according to new figures.
The fall in gross mortgage lending is accelerating, with a 3% dip from May to June, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML).
The CML said gross lending declined to an estimated £23.8bn in June, some 32% lower than the same month a year ago.
CML director general Michael Coogan said borrowers on tight budgets must plan ahead as the trend will continue.
Credit crunch
The more sturdy quarter-on-quarter figures show that lending declined by 1% from the first three months of the year to an estimated £74bn in April to July.
But spring and early summer are usually times when the housing market is more buoyant, with people more likely to look to move than in winter.
The quarterly year-on-year decline had accelerated, the CML said, with lending in the second quarter of 2008 down 21% on a year ago, after a year-on-year dip of 11% in the first quarter.
“Market activity during a traditionally a busy time of year for mortgages has been muted by funding shortages and, more recently, dampened consumer demand,” said Mr Coogan.
Lenders are taking fewer risks with lending, leading to more expensive mortgages and a demand for bigger deposits.
But the demand from buyers has also fallen as house prices drop. Many are likely to be waiting for a sign of property prices stabilising before they choose to move.
Gas bills ‘to top £1,000 a year’
July 19, 2008
Energy bills could rise by more than 60% within the next few years, a report for the UK’s biggest domestic energy supplier Centrica has said.
It said annual average gas bills could rise from £600 to more than £1,000 early in the next decade.
Continuing high oil prices could lead to rises in the cost of both gas and electricity, it added.
The energy minister said predictions of huge rises were “mere speculation” and may not prove to be accurate.
But Malcolm Wicks told Channel 4 News: “Bills are likely to go up. Certainly that is the case. I agree with the person who said that the era of cheap energy is over.”
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