Main News Desk

Northerners lose out in postcode lottery

~ energyhelpline.com warns latest energy rises will push bills to over £1,000 ~

February 15, 2008

The North East and Yorkshire have been hit with the highest bills, according to energyhelpline.com.

The recent spate of steep price rises from the likes of nPower, EDF and British Gas has struck consumers hard, meaning that the average UK bill has now breached the £1,000 mark.

The 12.7 per cent price hike by nPower, the default electricity supplier for the North East, means that consumers there are now paying around £1,130 for a typical dual fuel bill - £100 more than the cheapest parts of the country.

Highlight facts and figures from energyhelpline.com’s energy price index:

• People who remain on standard tariffs from their incumbent supplier are wasting an average of £321 a year. Given that approximately half of the UK’s households are yet to switch, this means the UK is wasting £5.4 billion a year in missed savings
• Bills for the same energy usage vary by £107 around the UK
• The biggest spenders can benefit from the biggest savings if they switch: people in the North East can save as much as 35 per cent
• Following the high profile price rises, bills are around 15 per cent higher than in January

Executive quote

Mark Todd, director at energyhelpline.com commented: “Switching savings have never been higher. People can save up to £388 by switching to the cheapest supplier in their area. Even consumers in Southern England, who enjoy the lowest energy bills, stand to make huge switching savings of almost £300.”

“The current climate of economic uncertainty means that further energy rises are likely,” continued Todd. “It is senseless to be paying anymore than is necessary - consumers need to ask themselves if they can afford to miss out on such huge savings for the sake of the few minutes it would take to switch.”

About the company

energyhelpline.com is part of firsthelpline.com which provides assistance via the Internet and telephone to enable customers to switch to cheaper suppliers for gas, electricity, heating insurance and home phones. energyhelpline.com is the only major price comparison service to guarantee to find UK households their cheapest energy supplier. It can do this as it lists all the suppliers in the UK. Consumers can switch online or by calling firsthelpline.com’s advisors on 0800 074 0741.

It was founded in November 2002 and has performed over 200,000 switches, with average customer savings of around £200 on gas and electricity bills. The service is completely independent, and impartial.

firsthelpline.com also has a Business Services team, which assists small to mid-sized enterprises in negotiating cheaper energy and phone contracts.

Contact details

For more information, please contact Sarah Crawford at LEWIS, the PR agency, at:
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7802 2626 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7802 2627

Web: http://www.lewispr.com

Email: sarahc@lewispr.com

Technorati tags: energyhelpline.com | energy | switching | tariffs |

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