5.2 million customers of Scottish power will face higher bills from 1st of March, as the company announced price rises of 15% for it’s gas customers and 8% for electricity.

The company said that it had been absorbing much of the soaring wholesale energy costs, but are now being forced to pass on some of the costs. A spokesman said the rise had been timed for March to only come into effect when the worst of the winter weather was over, so lessening the impact on its customers.

Others were sceptical however, with Energywatch Scotland calling for action to help elderlyand other vulnerable customers, while a spokesman for the Scottish National Party described it as a ’scandal that in energy-rich Scotland, fuel poverty is escalating’.

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