Households could end up paying an extra £45 for bills due to supplier failures

Brits are being warned that household energy bills could rise by a further £45to cover the costs of energy suppliers going bust.

Suppliers who will pick up the pieces from firms going bust will be able to claw back almost £1.3bn in expenses from households, experts at energy consultancy BFY Group said.

Since the start of the year 14 energy suppliers have closed and since September eleven have folded, which has affected around 2 million households.

BFY managing partner Ian Barker said, “For the suppliers who are able to weather the storm, they are facing £1.7bn to £2bn of losses over the next six months for customers who are being advised not to switch and to stay on the price cap with their current supplier.”

Appearing on ITV’s Peston, Sir Jim Ratcliffe was asked if country could shut down during a prolonged cold spell.

Ratcliffe said, “Yeah, in which case then what you would do is you’d shut down industry.”

He added, “Four years ago, when we had the, if you remember, the Beast From The East, we were within a day or two of running out of gas in the UK.

“If we had run out of gas it would have been a disaster for, you know, the older people who wouldn’t have been able to get heating in the house, for industry which would have had to shut down.

“But we were within days, and we did make that point.”

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said his party wants the government to “come out of hiding.”

He said, “They’ve put their out-of-office on. Whilst other countries step up and act, the UK is staggeringly complacently sitting back.”