17 December 2007
UK energy firm npower has provided further evidence that gas and electricity bills in the UK will be subject to across-the-board increases by announcing a 17% hike on its new online tariff.
As of today, the average bill for the firm's newly-launched online plan will represent a price increase of £134 per year, uSwitch revealed.
The news follows npower, along with British Gas, announcing earlier this month that their 'tracker' energy tariffs would be subject to bill rises of around 15% from the New Year.
However, this development is especially worrying as online tariffs are usually kept low by providers, as they are aimed at attracting price-savvy new customers comfortable with shopping on the internet.
Therefore, npower's move provides the strongest hint yet that prices are soon to be on the up across the entire gas and electricity market in the UK.
Tim Wolfenden, Head of Home Services at uSwitch, commented: "On the face of it this move is baffling - why put online prices up so high that you will no longer be able to attract new customers? But npower is simply reacting to pricing pressures, such as wholesale energy costs, that it can no longer afford to ignore.
"This is a clear sign of the shape of things to come - while npower is making this pre-emptive move on its online prices we fully expect it to redress the balance in the New Year with hefty price increases on its standard plans too."
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