Philippe Commaret, the energy company’s managing director for customers, called for additional government intervention, including help for households to insulate their homes and a cut in VAT for small businesses as prices soared to record levels. Gas and electricity prices, which had already soared around the world as economies recovered from coronavirus lockdowns, soared due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with Russia using its control over European gas supplies to try to gain political leverage. “We are facing, despite the support already announced by the government, a dramatic and devastating winter for customers,” Commaret told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “In January, half of UK households could be in fuel poverty”. Regulator Ofgem will publish its latest update on the energy price cap on Friday, with uniform expectations of a sharp rise in the price households pay for energy. The average annual domestic energy bill currently stands at £1,971, but this is forecast to rise to £3,582 in the autumn and up to £4,400 in April. Subscribe to Business Today Get ready for the business day – we’ll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. EDF said it would contact 100,000 of the most vulnerable customers to tell them about ways to reduce their energy bills and how to access all the support available, but Commaret said more government action was needed to help customers financially . As well as being a major retailer in the UK, EDF is one of the largest producers of electricity. The company is majority owned by the French state, but will be fully nationalized after the French government forced it to sell the power it produced at below-market prices. “We will suffer losses this year for EDF,” Commaret said. “So right now we’re doing everything we can to help customers, but we also need the support of the government to step in and even help beyond what’s already been announced.” Commaret said proposals for a “tariff deficit fund”, a plan to spread the cost of price rises over a decade, should be explored, as well as a cut in VAT, given that tax revenues had risen as prices had increased. But he said it would be vital to “make room in our customers’ budget” to pay back the money by helping customers use less energy in the long term. “Basically the solution is to insulate UK households,” he said. Labor made insulating homes a key policy proposal back in April, but the Conservative government has yet to make any major announcements on improving energy efficiency.
