Thousands of house­­holds facing huge energy bill hikes of up to £3,700 a year in weeks

Hundreds of thousands of house­­holds will be left worse off and facing huge energy bill rises in the coming weeks, with suppliers quoting up to £3,700 a year.

The price cap limiting how much suppliers can charge those on default tariffs and prepayment meters is set to rocket from April 1 due to sky-high wholesale prices.

Many households protected by cheap fixed-rate deals are also facing massive increases, as their tariffs run out over the coming weeks.

Figures from the website TheEnergyShop shows at least 226 such deals will expire before March.

Those who signed up a year ago could have been paying a typical £850 to £950 a year for gas and electricity.

It's hugely worrying for thousands of families (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

When their deal runs out, it is likely they will be moved to a standard tariff.

At an average of £1,277 a year due to the current cap, that would be a rise of £427, or 50%, on their bills.

Those standard tariffs and other such default deals are set to leap too when the price cap is raised in April, with forecasts of £2,000 a year.

It could mean a bill rocketing by £1,150 – or 135%.

Usually, those coming off fixed-rate deals would shop around for another cheap offer.

But with wholesale energy prices so high, the price of fixed-rate deals has soared as well.

Research by the Mirror found suppliers charging enormous prices.

Outfox The Market quoted £309 a month – £3,708 a year – for an average customer. Not far behind was EDF, with a 12-month fixed-rate product at £295 a month, £3,540 annually, for a typical household.

Hundreds of thousands of families will be hit by the hike (Getty Images)

It is unclear exactly how many households are due to come off fixed-rate deals in the next few months.

Such deals typically last for 12 months and figures from trade body Energy UK show more than 370,000 moved electricity supplier in January 2020. Gas switching data is not given.

Joe Malinowski, founder of TheEnergyShop.com, said: “These two hikes will see many consumers’ bills double over the space of just a few months.”

Outfox The Market did not respond to a request to comment, while EDF Energy said the cost of its tariff reflected wholesale prices at the time it was launched.