Energy price cap to hit £6,500 a year in April

The energy price cap will hit £6,500 a year in April following a fresh surge in gas prices.

The price cap will be set at £6,552 next April – almost £500 higher than previously feared – consultancy Auxilione said.

Auxilion said it now expects the price cap to rise to £3,576 from the start of October, hitting £5,066 in January before rising even further to £6,552 from April.

“The nervousness of the market appears to increase day by day as we edge closer to winter delivery, now just five weeks away, and no big positive news on the horizon,” Auxilione said.

“The planned outages in a week’s time have captured the attention of the market and are driving concerns further – as yesterday’s market activity demonstrated.”