Npower, rents, car insurance and credit

One of the UK’s biggest energy suppliers is under fire this morning for hiking the price of gas and electricity by an overall 9.8 per cent.

Npower has announced one of the largest single price rises implemented by a ‘Big Six’ supplier, according to the BBC. The company will raise standard tariff electricity prices by 15 per cent from 16 March, and gas prices by 4.8 per cent. This means that an average dual fuel annual energy bill will increase by £109.

A spokesperson for Ofgem said: ‘Our new supplier cost index shows that costs for energy suppliers have risen over the past year after having fallen for the previous two to three years. However, we don’t see any case for significant price increases where suppliers have bought energy well in advance. Npower must therefore justify the decision to its customers.’

Npower said the changes would affect about half of its customers. The other half are on fixed-term deals and will see no price rise. The announcement could trigger its rivals to implement similar price rises. Property The Telegraph reports that rents are expected to fall across the country over the next few months. HomeLet said that the average rent in the UK rose by 0.7 per cent in the last 12 months, falling 0.4 per cent on a monthly basis in January. It added that rental price inflation has fallen for the last seven months and, at the current rate of growth, that would go into negative territory soon. In other housing news, new research from Direct Line’s SELECT Premier Insurance reveals applications to build or extend basements in residential properties increased by 9 per cent between 2013 and 2015. In 2015 at least 1,968 planning applications were made to local councils in Great Britain, of which around three quarters (74 per cent) were granted.

A huge proportion (75 per cent) of all basement planning applications in 2015 were made in London, compared to regions like Wales and Yorkshire which received less than 1 per cent of planning applications.

Credit crackdown The Times reports on comments by the governor of the Bank of England who has indicated that the Bank is thinking about a crackdown on ballooning levels of consumer borrowing. Due to the fact that households have reduced the amount they save to record lows to maintain their spending habits, Mark Carney said the Bank’s enforcement arms were looking into the behaviour of lenders to make sure households were not allowed to take on ‘reckless’ levels of credit card and personal debt. He was speaking as the Bank unveiled its forecasts for growth and inflation for the next three years, which showed the savings rate falling to its lowest level since records began in the 1960s. Motor insurance More bad news for motorists this morning following new figures which show that car insurance premiums in the UK have hit a record high. The BBC reports on data from the Association of British Insurers (ABI) which shows that the average annual comprehensive policy cost £462 in the last three months of 2016. This is partly because cars’ increasingly complex electronics have made repairs more expensive. In the past, the highest figure was £443 in the Spring of 2012. The average repair bill has risen by 32 per cent over the last three years to £1,678, the ABI said. HBOS  The Guardian reports on the much-publicised trial of a group of bankers who, according to a judge, ran an ‘utterly corrupt scheme’ that left hundreds of small business owners ‘cheated, defeated and penniless’. Lynden Scourfield, a former senior HBOS manager, was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison after the judge found he had ‘sold your soul, for sex, for luxury trips with and without your wife – for bling and for swag’. The Guardian said: ‘Scourfield, 54, was jailed on Thursday after pleading guilty to the extensive scheme that drained the bank and small businesses of around £245 million and left hundreds of people in severe financial difficulties.’ Shopping Now’s the time to buy your greens following the news that supermarkets have started rationing vegetables due to a shortage caused by floods, snow and storms across key areas of the Mediterranean.

The Daily Mail reports that ‘Morrisons has imposed a limit of three heads of broccoli and two iceberg lettuces per customer throughout its 492 stores. Tesco has imposed a three-lettuce limit and shoppers at other stores have shared pictures of empty fresh produce aisles as prices are hiked due to the shortages.’