(Bloomberg) --

British households will see the average energy bill soar to £3,554 ($4,200) a year in October when the UK next raises a cap on prices, according to consultancy Cornwall Insight Ltd.  

The forecast confirms other recent estimates that bills will rise about 80% this winter compared with prices in April. Surging wholesale natural gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are underpinning accelerating UK inflation, which hit the highest in 40 years last month. That’s intensifying a cost-of-living crisis and adding to pressure for the government to take action.

The UK’s energy regulator Ofgem will on Friday announce an increase to the country’s so-called price cap, which regulates how much suppliers can charge households per unit of energy. Earlier this month, Ofgem warned that a challenging winter was ahead with no easy answers to address the unprecedented rise in prices. 

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Bills will only get more expensive next year. Cornwall Insight predicts the price cap will peak above £5,300 in the second quarter of 2023 and remain above £4,700 throughout the remainder of the year. The current estimate for the average price cap for April to September of 2023 is £5,054, more than double the amount this year. 

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