The heat is on

摘要

With autumn just around the corner, temperatures will start to fall in the next few weeks and thermostats will be turned up in homes across the country. Britain has got used to relatively cheap domestic energy and most of us give little thought to it. However, this complacency is about to be challenged. Rocketing upstream oil and gas prices over the past year or so have seen several big utilities firms impose incremental price rises. The odd 4% increase here and 9% increase there have been met with a shrug by domestic users, most of whom cannot be bothered to shop around. But this indifference may well change once bills reflecting higher energy usage during the colder months start hitting doormats.