Awful April arrives: Millions face £1,600 hit in household bill rise

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A millionaire energy boss told Britons at least £700-a-year worse off from today to use less electricity as people stayed up through the night into ‘April cruel day’ to submit meter readings as utility firms’ websites crashed and smart meters packed up.

Utilita founder Bill Bullen, who last year urged consumers to ‘put a jumper on’ over the winter, admitted people will die because people won’t be able to afford to put the heating on, cook warm meals or have hot water.

Households are suffering a huge hit on living standards as the price of gas and electricity soars by 54 per cent this morning as regulator Ofgem raises the price cap for an average home to £1,971 from £1,277. Experts predict it will be around £2,700-a-year from October. 

The websites of energy suppliers crashed as thousands of customers rushed to submit meter readings ahead of today’s price hike. Many were forced to keep trying through the night or gave up. Some with smart meters said they either failed – or showed that prices were up £1.30-per-hour overnight. Others tweeted that their monthly direct debits went from £90-a-month to £200-plus. 

Today has already been branded ‘Bleak Friday’ because all 66million Britons face an assault on their budgets because council tax, car tax, national insurance, water bills and the cost of broadband, phones and TV are all going up in April. Food prices are also spiking and a pint of beer is up at least 20p. Social housing rents are up £20-a-month and from today people face paying £1 to £3 for a lateral flow test.

This assault on household budgets will add another £900 to annual bills, not including the eye-watering energy price rises fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a global oil shortage because of post-pandemic demand.

Energy companies insist that they can do nothing to reduce increasing costs for customers with one boss admitting today that the only answer is for consumers to use less energy. 

Utilita founder and boss Bill Bullen that Chancellor Rishi Sunak will be forced to find billions to pay energy bills for Britain’s poorest households.

He said: ‘There is one thing that everyone can do and that is to think about their energy consumption and change their behaviour. And if you can afford to invest in your home then do that as well. Energy price rises are going to hit everybody. It’s going to cause everybody to make difficult decisions but some consumers are in a far worse position and this will be worse for them’. 

He said there was ‘no question’ this price rise would lead to the deaths of the vulnerable people, especially the elderly, adding: ‘Next winter it will be much much worse’, and also ‘much worse for children also’.

‘People will see an extra £500 or £600 added to bills from October but the Chancellor is going to have  finance that entirely for poorer households. We are going to be in the next couple of years like that’.

He added: ‘No matter how much you are struggling, do not use BBQs or open fires in your home. Apart from the fire risk there is a carbon monoxide problem’.     

Glitches at firms including British Gas, E.On and Scottish Power meant households were unable to log data online. Long wait times left callers in limbo for hours. Many people submitted their readings 

It came as consumer champion Martin Lewis urged households to submit photographs of their meters to suppliers for what he called ‘meter reading day’.

He was in tears on BBC Radio 5Live last night as he read out emails form people who are terrified about how they will pay their energy bills. 

But providers provoked further outrage when they appeared to blame Mr Lewis for the delays, with E.On accusing him of ‘bringing down Britain’. 

Households were encouraged to submit evidence of their meter readings before midnight last night to show exactly how much energy they had been using. This should prevent firms from estimating a customer’s energy usage before April 1 and potentially overcharging them at the new higher rate.

The guidance only applies to traditional meters rather than ‘smart’ ones, which automatically send data to suppliers.

A tweet by E.On’s official account read: ‘Unfortunately the website and phone lines of every supplier are being hammered today. Martin has once again created an unprecedented demand bringing down Britain.’ The tweet was swiftly deleted, with the firm admitting it was an ‘ill-considered and off-the-cuff remark’. Octopus said: ‘Martin Lewis’ advice for customers to submit meter readings has driven incredible traffic.’

Mr Lewis appeared to laugh off the barbs, saying he thought the E.On tweet was ‘someone trying to be funny’. He added: ‘I’m always forgiving of human error (as I make them myself) so let’s move on.’

Almost all energy providers said they were experiencing difficulties on their websites yesterday. By last night many appeared to be up and running again. One British Gas customer wrote on Twitter: ‘This isn’t good enough! How about investing some of those obscene profits in a decent IT system?’

Politicians also condemned the suppliers, insisting they should have anticipated a surge in website traffic. Ed Miliband, Labour’s climate change spokesman, said suppliers had ‘serious questions to answer’. Last night energy bosses urged customers not to panic. Octopus chief executive Greg Jackson said readings could be emailed or phoned in over the next ‘five to seven days’.

Scott Byrom, of The Energy Shop, said: ‘Even if you didn’t manage to get a photo yesterday and take one today, the difference in cost will be pennies.’ Trade body Energy UK said customers could use automated phonelines and apps to make contact. 

Rishi Sunak is under intense pressure to do more to ease the cost of living as families brace for a £1,600 hit this month.

Tory MPs and campaigners urged the Chancellor to revisit last week’s mini-Budget to help millions facing an unprecedented hike in everyday costs.  

A record rise in energy bills kicks off a year of economic pain for millions.

The energy price cap will jump from £1,277 to £1,971 – an increase of £693 – with official forecasts suggesting it will increase by a further £788 in October.

An independent assessment for the Daily Mail found that price rises and tax hikes this month alone will cost a typical family of four over £134 a month – equal to more than £1,612 a year.

Energy firm websites crashed yesterday as struggling customers tried to register their meter readings on the last day before the massive rise.

Next week, the Chancellor’s controversial hike in national insurance contributions will kick in, costing someone earning £30,000 an extra £255.

Council tax bills are rising by an average 3.5 per cent. And the hospitality sector warned that the decision to increase VAT to its pre-pandemic levels would put further pressure on inflation rates which are already forecast to hit 9 per cent this year.

Hospitality firms warned price rises in pubs and restaurants are ‘inevitable’ from today when the reduced rate of VAT on the sector goes up from 12.5 per cent to its pre-pandemic level of 20 per cent.

Former minister Robert Halfon said that while the Chancellor had already moved to help by means of measures such as last week’s 5p cut in fuel duty, the scale of the crisis meant he would have to get his chequebook out again.

Mr Halfon, Conservative MP for Harlow, in Essex, urged the Prime Minister to use next week’s energy strategy to take VAT and ‘green tariffs’ off energy bills, a move which he said could reduce them by hundreds of pounds.

He said: ‘I welcome the action the Government has taken but we will have to go further, particularly on energy bills.’

Former Cabinet minister John Redwood also urged the Chancellor to ‘do more’ to help struggling families – including ditching the NI hike and VAT on domestic fuel.

‘More action is needed now to see off the hit to real incomes in April and May, rather than pausing to see what happens in the autumn,’ he said.

Mr Sunak has already unveiled some measures to help, including a £200 loan to assist with energy bills, which comes through in October, and a massive rise in the threshold for paying national insurance, which will leave most workers better off when it comes into force in July.

Millions of households living in homes rated council tax bands A to D will also benefit from a one-off discount worth £150.

Yesterday the Chancellor acknowledged that many families would find the coming months ‘tough’ – and admitted that his decisions to raise taxes were ‘certainly unpopular’.

But he suggested that the Government’s towering debts left him with little room to do more. He said: ‘We’re facing a very difficult situation with the price of things going up and I want to do what we can to ameliorate some of that, but I’m also honest with people that we can’t ameliorate all of it, sadly.’

But Downing Street left the door open to a possible further package of help.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the Government had put in place support worth £22billion. He added that the Government cannot do ‘absolutely everything to cover off some of these pressures that we are seeing globally’.

But he said ministers would keep the situation under review. He said: ‘We are ready to take further steps if needed to support households’.

Labour yesterday put the cost of living at the centre of its campaign for next month’s local elections. Launching the party’s campaign in Bury yesterday, Sir Keir Starmer branded the package of help ‘pathetic’ and called for a windfall tax on energy firms, which he said could knock £600 off average bills.

Senior Tories also fear the cost of living could dent the party’s hopes in next month’s elections.

Conservative backbencher Craig Mackinlay said he ‘fears for the May elections’ because of the cost of living crisis.

He told the Mail: ‘It’s not a great place to be politically when all these bills arrive in April.’

An assessment of rising costs conducted for the Mail found that households face a tough financial year.

Fuel poverty charity National Energy Action warned the cost of heating an average home has now doubled in 18 months, leaving 6.5 million households unable to live in a warm, safe home across the UK.