UK energy bills rise ‘more than £4,200’ amid warning of ‘extremely severe problem’ – Business Live | Business

According to the poverty think tank, the UK faces “looming danger” and “a very serious problem”.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation said the £400 payment to every UK household announced by chancellor Rishi Sunak in May would not be enough to cope with expected energy costs over the winter.

Energy researchers from Cornwall Insights, which is closely watched by the industry and politicians, predicted on Tuesday that the average annual energy bill allowed by the government’s rate cap could rise by more than £4,200 in January.

Peter MatejicChief Analyst at Joseph Rowntree Foundationhe said:

The latest forecast of annual energy bills of more than £4,200 from January is the latest in a series of dire warnings from the Bank of England and others last week. Low-income families can’t afford these eyewashes and as a nation we can’t afford to ignore the looming threat.

Both prime ministerial candidates should be aware of the rapidly changing situation and take steps to prevent future emergencies.

Day-to-day action is being delayed, raising concerns for low-income families who don’t know how to make ends meet this winter. Payments promised by the government at the start of the year provided some relief but their success has been outpaced by events and must now at least be doubled if people are to be kept out of serious trouble.

Joanna Partridge

Dock workers at the port of Felixstowe have been given a £500 bonus to end an eight-day strike planned for the end of this month at Britain’s biggest container port.

Around 1,900 dockworkers have voted to go on strike between August 21 and 29 over a pay dispute with Felixstowe Dock and Rail Co., which runs the Suffolk port.

The Hong Kong-owned port has offered workers a one-off payment of £500 following ongoing negotiations by Acas, a conciliation service between the company and unions.

The company said that the unions will provide the bonus offer to their members. However, he added that the hourly workers union at Felixstowe would not be given the opportunity to vote on the offer.

A spokesman for the port said:

There are no winners in the strike, it’s just a loss of money that their members have earned. Our focus is on finding a solution that works for our employees and protects the future success of the port.

The union rejected the organization’s request to meet again.

Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings, which owns three mobile phone networks and health care retailer Superdrug, has not had a strike at the port since 1989.

Any extended strike would have an impact on the UK’s supply chain, further knocking the British economy into recession.

The logistics center handles around 40% of all containers entering and leaving the UK – representing around 45,000 containers each week – filled with cargo including consumer goods, clothing and packaged food.

Hundreds of thousands of nurses in England and Wales will vote next month on a series of strikes over pay.

The strike will begin on September 15 and run until October 13, according to the Royal College of Nursing, the largest union representing nurses.

Helen Hailey, the RCN’s director for Wales, told Times Radio that more than 250,000 nurses would be nominated. If they vote to strike, it will be the first walkout in the RCN’s 106-year history.

The union says a £1,400 pay rise announced by the government last month is not enough to offset the impact of rising consumer prices. UK inflation has hit a 40-year high of 9.4% and is set to rise to more than 13% in the coming months, pushing up energy and food costs.

RCN Council Chair Carol Popplestone said in a message to union members:

This year’s salary award will not help you with the cost of living. It does nothing to help hire or retain more nursing staff where you work and does not protect patient safety.

A strike would mean further disruption to an already inadequate health service. Due to the rising cost of living, many other sectors, including railway workers, have gone on strike.

In financial markets ahead of tomorrow’s U.S. inflation report, the U.S. dollar hit a recent high.

The pound strengthened 0.36% to $1.2119, while the euro was at $1.0236 against the dollar, a gain of 0.4%. The yen was held at 134.94 per dollar.

Ray Attrill, head of foreign exchange strategy at National Australia Bank in Sydney, told Reuters.

The market is waiting for the numbers to come back, rather than moving in anticipation of them.

We got six CPI [consumer price index] In this year’s numbers, four of the six were surprises… but the impact on the dollar is a bit ambiguous.