Energy Price Cap Rises 4% to £1,723 on Thursday
The cap increases on 1 October, four days into a conference built around the slogan “Hope Again”, and the Scottish National Party moved quickly to use the timing. Its Westminster leader Dave Doogan said a plea to hope “rings hollow when under the Labour Party’s watch the cost-of-living emergency goes from bad to worse”. His sharpest line was a comparison: “It’s all beginning to feel very Keir Starmer.”
A 4% rise is modest set against what may follow: the Bank of England expects the January cap to climb by as much as 24% on surging gas costs, and that one is announced on 25 November. So Thursday is the small instalment of a much larger bill, arriving in the same week the government asks the country to feel optimistic. Mr Doogan’s attack is aimed precisely at that gap — “instead of more vibes and TikTok videos, people are waiting to hear how this latest UK Prime Minister is going to put money in people’s pockets”. The Prime Minister’s own framing for the week is that “it’s time for Britain to believe again”. Whether that survives January depends on decisions taken next month. Watch the Budget for targeted energy support.