Hike in energy costs are now a major worries for Britons (Image: Getty)
Energy bills have now overtaken food prices as Britons’ biggest cost of living worry. Fewer than three in 10 people say they could cope with a further hike in bills. Two in five say energy bills cause arguments at home – and this is true for even the richest respondents. The share of Britons who cite energy bills as a top concern soared from two-thirds in August last year to almost three-quarters last month.
The new research by More In Common shows energy bills are “stretching household finances to breaking point, straining family life, and fuelling support for Reform UK and the Greens”. Researchers found rising costs are ‘driving stress and anxiety”.
Four in five Britons are taking measures to manage rising costs, such as turning down heating, cutting back on holidays and spending less on going out. When asked to name their three biggest worries about the cost of living, energy bills was mentioned most often (73%), ahead of shopping and grocery prices (68%) and housing costs (36%).
High energy bills are “making parenting harder”, it is claimed, with one in three parents of young children reporting “significant stress and anxiety”. The research found “women and middle-aged Britons are hardest hit and the most likely to have to change their lifestyle”. Even the well-off are feeling the pressure, with 41% of those earning more than £100,000 claiming they argue with household members over their energy use.
Reform and Green voters are the “most worried about energy bills”. Forty-one per cent of people who voted for Labour in 2024 but now support one of the two insurgent parties reported stress and anxiety about energy bills, compared with 31% of the population. Only 13% of Green voters felt they could absorb the extra cost if energy prices rise further. This compares with 29% of Reform voters, 37% of Liberal Democrat supporters, 39% of those who plan to vote Tory, and 44% of Labour backers.
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A Green Party spokesperson said: “This polling confirms what Green Party campaigners are hearing on the doorstep: Households are at breaking point, and energy bills are a major cause of financial strain. The root problem is our country’s continued exposure to volatile fossil fuel markets, which leaves us highly vulnerable to global shocks.
“To bring bills down for good we must invest rapidly in cheaper, cleaner, homegrown renewable energy.”
Conservative Shadow Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho said: “Labour promised to cut energy bills by £300, but instead they’ve been going up and up. The public are right to be sceptical; they have no plan.”
She said that cutting taxes and levies could “cut the average household energy bill by £200 and slash electricity bills for all businesses by 20%”.
Tories and Reform want a new generation of North Sea oil and gas drilling (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Camilla Born of Electrify Britain, a campaign group backed by Octopus Energy and EDF which commissioned the research, said the findings showed why Britain needed to leave the oil and gas era behind.
She said: “People are all too familiar with seeing their energy bills jump and want the government to banish high bills for good. But unless we untether British families from oil and gas, we will continue to feel the pain when we pay for our heating and fill up our cars. The only long-term solution is to electrify everything.”
Luke Tryl of More in Common warned the “perma-crisis” around energy is driving disillusionment about the political system.He said: ““Westminster tends to notice energy bills when they make the news, then moves on. But for millions of families across Britain, this isn’t just something that affects them over a single news cycle.
“It’s a compounding series of struggles, a primary driver of personal stress and increasingly a cause of arguments within families.”