BRITAIN will face its fifth winter energy bills crisis in a row, campaigners said today, after forecasters predicted a 1 per cent rise next month.

Despite lower wholesale costs, experts at Cornwall Insight believe the typical household energy bill will rise by £17 to £1,737 per year when regulator Ofgem’s new price cap comes into force in October.

Its latest prediction is a turnaround from its July forecast that bills would drop by 1 per cent from the current £1,720 in October due to easing Middle East tensions.

Ofgem, which sets the price limit energy companies can charge customers, is set to confirm its latest cap on August 27.

The End Fuel Poverty Coalition said that the rise would wipe out some of the reduction in bills seen in July 2025 and means energy bills are 67 per cent higher than in winter 2020/21.

Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis said: “We’re about to face our fifth winter of the energy bills crisis, with the average family still paying hundreds of pounds more than they did just a few years ago.

“One of the main culprits is the price of gas, which tripled at the height of the crisis and is still 81 per cent higher than before.

“What’s more, the North Sea, once seen as the nation’s source of gas, is in terminal decline and it simply cannot provide power for our heating systems for the long term.

“If we want affordable, secure energy, we have to look beyond gas and slash the cost of clean electricity.”

Cornwall said that its forecast reflected changes it is assumed Ofgem will be introducing in the upcoming cap period, including the expansion of the Warm Home Discount scheme for vulnerable households that would add around £15 to a typical bill while also providing £150 in support to 2.7 million additional people.

However, it also noted that wholesale prices for electricity and gas had been “volatile,” largely reflecting geopolitical factors including uncertainty over US trade policy.

Cornwall added that it expects a small drop in the price cap in January.

Ofgem changes the price cap for households every three months, largely based on the cost of energy on wholesale markets.

A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesman said: “The only way to bring down energy bills for good is with the Government’s clean energy superpower mission, which will get the UK off the rollercoaster of fossil fuel prices and on to clean, homegrown power that we control.

“We are taking urgent action to support families this winter – in addition to expanding the £150 Warm Home Discount to 2.7 million more households, we are strengthening customer protections, including by giving people quicker and easier access to automatic compensation when their suppliers let them down.”