Rises in wholesale gas and oil prices coupled with political unrest and natural disasters mean energy tariffs will increase over coming months, says comparison site

Householders face record high energy bills this summer following a sustained rise in wholesale gas and oil prices over the past year.

Joe Malinowski of energy comparison website TheEnergyShop.com said rumours of another round of energy price rises are emerging, with suggestions the increases could be announced this month.

He said: “Wholesale gas prices have been rising rapidly driven by the higher price of oil and by concerns over supply disruptions as a result of violence in Libya and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. The latter has led to a diversion of LNG [liquefied natural gas] cargoes to Japan in response to a shutdown of nuclear generation capacity.

“It is now very likely we will see further increases in energy prices that will take energy bills to record levels. On top of rising commodity costs energy suppliers also face rising infrastructure and environmental charges, the impact of which is more difficult to quantify.

“Average energy bills are £177 higher today than they were three years ago when wholesale prices were at comparable levels, so energy suppliers have plenty of additional revenue – £4bn pounds of it – to cover higher non-commodity costs.

“On balance we expect a further price increases in the 5%-10% range which would add between £50-100 to the annual household energy bill and would put energy bills at a new record high. Increases in the double digit range cannot be ruled out.”

Energy suppliers must now provide customers with at least 30 days’ notice of price increases, and with TheEnergyShop predicting announcements in the next two months this would result in the increases being implemented from July onwards.

Although current fixed-rate deals are more expensively priced than the cheapest variable rates, they may prove cheaper over the longer term once price rises are implemented and depending on how much energy a household uses. The current rates are competitive and are not likely to be available for long.

The cheapest variable rate dual fuel deal is British Gas’s WebSaver 11, which would cost the average user £895 a year on today’s prices. The cheapest fixed-rate deal is npower’s Go Fix 5, costing the average user £960 a year (although this is expected to be withdrawn very shortly); followed by Fixed Saver 2 from EDF Energy, costing the average user £1,009 a year. The cheapest green energy deal is Scottish Power’s Green Energy Fund, costing an average of £1,043 a year.

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A miscaculation by the Yorkshire and Clydesdale banks means some mortgage holders could be asked to repay up to £300 more each month

Thousands of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank mortgage customers are facing higher monthly payments after the providers, owned by National Australia Bank, said they had miscalculated repayments on some of their variable and tracker rate mortgages.

The banks said 18,000 customers have been left with a shortfall on their mortgages, all of who have now been asked to pay the correct monthly amount plus an additional monthly sum to meet the shortfall. According to a spokesman for Yorkshire Bank the affected products are “some variable rate mortgages on which interest is calculated daily, which will include some trackers.”

Around 10,000 of the victims are Clydesdale customers in Scotland, with the remainder Yorkshire Bank customers. In total, £19m has been underpaid with an average individual total underpayment of £800. However, some homeowners face soaring repayments of up to an extra £300 a month.

One mortgage payer, writing on the MoneySavingExpert forum, said: “They are asking for an extra £200 per month for the remaining nine years of our mortgage. This is in excess of £21,000. How is this possible?”

The problem began in 2005 when a mathematical error resulted in over or underpayments being made whenever the Bank of England base rate moved up or down sharply. When rates plummeted in late-2008 to early-2009 customers were not asked to pay enough.

The bank said there were options available to customers, including making a one-off payment to cover the shortfall or extending their mortgage term, and both providers were dealing with problems on a case-by-case basis.

A spokesman for Yorkshire Bank said: “[The banks] have been speaking to the Financial Services Authority and the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) about how best to handle this, and they wanted to do it the right way.”

Steve Reid, retail director for the Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank, said: “We are very sorry that this error has happened and for any inconvenience it may have caused those customers affected. We would like to reassure mortgage customers that they need take no action unless they have received a letter from us.

“The vast majority of our customers are not affected and, of those that are, 99% have already received their letter advising them of the specific impact on their account. The other 1% will hear from us in the next couple of weeks advising them of options to bring their account back on track.”

But Dan Plant, a money analyst at MoneySavingExpert, said: “This huge error could push many borrowers into difficulties paying their everyday bills, as the massive hikes in mortgage payments are unlikely to have been budgeted for.

“However, unlike when customers miscalculate payments and get slapped with huge £30-£40 charges, here the bank has messed up but the customers are still feeling the brunt.”

The website said customers could demand not to pay the shortfall or try and come to an agreement where they only pay a percentage of the cash due. If customers don’t get a satisfactory response within eight weeks or are rejected earlier, they have a right to complain to the independent FOS.

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