Brits will be prioritising energy bills ahead of the weekly shop and Christmas presents, according to research carried out by energy supplier Co-operative Energy.
The survey of over 2,000 adults discovered that 49.3% of consumers rated energy bill payments as the their most important household expenditure during the winter. Bill payers are also more concerned about the affordability of bills this year than they were last year. Over 45% indicated that they are more concerned about their ability to pay energy bills this year compared to last year. What’s more, 65% of bill payers said that they were unable to stop worrying about how much their energy bills would be.
A symptom of the concern over energy bills is that 41% of those surveyed indicated that they would have to tighten the purse strings in the winter months in order to have enough money for energy bills.
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Commenting on the results of the survey, Ramsay Dunning, group general manager of Co-operative Energy said: “What our latest research shows is that despite a supposed upturn in the economy, consumers are still fearful of their energy bills in the winter and that this remains a worry for them.
“Our findings indicate that bill payers are assigning more of their household budget to pay for their energy than they did two years ago. Over half (54%) of consumers are doing this compared to just 11% who are apportion less budget for energy than they did this time two years ago.”
The recession appears to have had a significant effect on the way households prepare for higher winter energy bills: 57% of those surveyed said that they had actively put money aside to cover energy bills. More than half of those surveyed said that they have been forced to make spending sacrifices elsewhere in order to have enough money for energy bills, with 37% stating that they had forgone a summer holiday to save money.
Dunning concluded: “Consumers are still feeling the pinch when it comes to energy and are having to make sacrifices elsewhere to meet their bill payments.”
According to various reports, the Labour government is set assuage consumers’ fears over energy bills by making energy efficiency a national infrastructure priority with ambitious plans to insulate five million of the least energy efficient homes in the UK.
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