Government must act on further energy price rises

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 18th Jul 2008

The Welsh Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Social Justice, Peter Black has called on the Government to intervene in the light of a warning from gas company 'Centrica' that gas prices could rise by more than 60% in the next few years.

The warning came from Centrica managing director Jake Ulrich who said that gas prices were likely to continue rising "for some time" due to Britain becoming more reliant on imported gas, rather than gas from the North Sea.

"I understand why the company has decided to issue this warning now however, they also have an opportunity to plan ahead for how they will help their poorest customers in the coming years." said Mr. Black. "Fuel companies cannot expect the customer to shoulder the full cost of this rise when they continue to report record profits. They should be using some of their windfall profits to help the customers who need it the most."

"There is now an urgent need for the Government to intervene on this issue. They must regulate to force the energy companies to pass on some of their profits to customers by absorbing some of the additional costs they face. They must also look at whether the Energy Watchdog has enough powers to battle for consumers on fuel prices. There seems to be no political will on the part of the Government to help those who will struggle the most to meet these additional price increases."