Published:
4:26 PM August 30, 2022
Around 100 protesters gathered outside Ofgem’s headquarters in Canary Wharf demonstrating against rising energy bills.
Members of the crowd shouted “enough is enough” and held banners reading “freeze profits, not people” on Friday (August 26).
Ofgem confirmed an 80.06 per cent rise in the energy price cap on the same day, sending the average household’s yearly bill from £1,971 to £3,549 from October.
The demonstration was promoted by Don’t Pay UK, a grassroots movement describing its aim as “building a mass non-payment strike of energy bills starting on October 1”.
Among the protesters was teacher Jamie Grey, from Tower Hamlets, who said she teaches children who are already living below the poverty line whose families would be unable to stay warm this winter.
The 34-year-old felt that vulnerable people would die over the coming months as a result of the cost-of-living crisis.
“Ofgem don’t care about us. All we have is each other,” Ms Grey added.
Ofgem boss Jonathan Brearley said the regulator had to make “difficult trade-offs” setting the new price cap.
He warned costs would come back to customers in the long run if companies were to fail.
Speaking to Channel 4 News, Mr Brearley said: “The price cap was designed to do one thing, and that was to make sure that unfair profits aren’t charged by those companies that buy and sell energy. And, right now, those profits in that market are 0pc.
“What it can’t do is it can’t say, given the cost of the energy, that we can force companies to get from customers less than it costs to buy the energy that they need, because otherwise they simply can’t buy the energy for those customers.”
He added: “So, we have had to make some difficult trade-offs and we have had to make some difficult choices.”
Reporting by Press Association.
https://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/canary-wharf-ofgem-protest-9242474
