UK energy bills to cost 10% of average salary, TUC analysis shows

Energy market has become a 'racket', says TUC union

Trades Union Congress said that workers on low incomes are being hit the hardest and it called on the government to set up a public energy company to help lower bills. EPA

Research suggests that energy bills will account for up to 10 per cent of the average UK salary from April.

The average energy bill will rise to £250 ($299) a month, more than double the amount workers were paying a year ago, analysis by the Trades Union Congress showed.

The union said that workers on low incomes are being hit the hardest and it called on the government to set up a public energy company to help lower bills.

A full-time minimum wage worker will face bills worth 16 per cent of their monthly salary when the price cap is raised in April — up from 8 per cent in March 2022, said the TUC.

It repeated its calls for a higher windfall tax on big oil and gas companies and urged ministers to end “Britain’s living-standards nightmare”.

The TUC claimed the UK energy market has become a “racket”, with oil and gas firms making billions in profits while families struggle to heat their homes.

“The government must cancel its imminent hike in household energy bills at next month’s budget. Families across Britain are being pushed to the brink by sky-high bills,” TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said.

“That means imposing a larger windfall tax on greedy oil and gas suppliers, and it means boosting wages across the economy.

“UK workers are on course for two decades of lost pay. This has left millions brutally exposed to soaring prices.

“Unless we get wages rising, working people will just keep lurching from crisis to crisis.”

He added that it was time to bring companies back into public ownership.

“Privatisation has been a disaster for hard-pressed households. The only real winners have been shareholders who have creamed off hundreds of millions in dividends,” he continued.

“That’s why the TUC is calling for the government to set up a public energy company to lower bills.”

Shadow climate secretary and Labour MP Ed Miliband said: “In a matter of weeks, Rishi Sunak plans to allow the energy price cap to rise to £3,000.

“At the same time, the oil and gas giants rake in the windfalls of war, and Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives refuse to implement a proper windfall tax that would make them pay their fair share.”

He said that Labour would use a “proper windfall tax to stop prices going up in April”.