Call to cut ‘crippling’ power bills

ENERGY firms should use soaring profits to cut “crippling” bills for consumers, Labour leader Ed Miliband has insisted.

He highlighted figures this week that suggested firms were currently making the equivalent of £125 per customer per year – up from just £15 in June.

Miliband warned that rising electricity and gas prices were going to cause a “huge winter squeeze on the finances of families and the elderly”.

He hit out at Prime Minister David Cameron for merely convening a Downing Street summit to discuss the issue.

“Ministers in suits around a table in a warm room will do nothing to persuade people that Mr Cameron and this Tory-led government understand the realities of families struggling to pay the bills,” he wrote.

“All the big-six energy firms have seen their profits rise sharply this year. On Friday, Ofgem said the profit margin for energy companies has risen to £125 per customer per year.

“There is nothing to stop those power companies giving up those profits.

“Instead of an improved bottom line, they could use this extra money to stop crippling price rises.”

Miliband pointed to the decision by Scottish and Southern Energy to sell its energy on the open market, rather than merely to its own supplier arms.

“At present, 80 per cent of people pay too much for their energy,” Miliband said. “If the few big dominant firms were forced to sell the power they generate to any retailer, companies such as supermarkets could come into the market.”

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