Gas bills will rise by 43 per cent in the next 12 months and electricity by 21 per cent, an average £360 per home, because of a sudden surge in market prices, industry experts are warning.
Wholesale gas prices, the prices energy companies buy at, soared to a record high on Friday, taking the increase since the beginning of the year to 76 per cent.
To restore the balance between wholesale prices and those that householders pay, the average gas and electricity bills a year will have to increase to £1,410, almost £500 more than a year ago.
'The last time wholesale gas prices broke above retail gas prices was three years ago, in June 2005,' said Joe Malinowski of TheEnergyShop.com. 'In the following 18 months energy bills rose by a record 47 per cent. A very similar thing is going to happen this time around, except that the money value of the increase is going to be even higher.'
The surge came on the same day that the price of oil shot up by its biggest one-day advance ever to hit a record of more than $139 a barrel. The rise staggered Wall Street, causing the Dow Jones Index to close 3.1 per cent down, its eighth-biggest point drop ever.
Yesterday energy officials from the world's biggest consumer nations started two days of talks in a bid to tackle the growing global economic threat of soaring oil, coal and natural gas prices.
New highs in food and energy bills have been a particularly heavy burden for pensioners in recent months, with eight out of 10 admitting that they have already cut back on their spending this year.
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