Electricity is to blame for stubbornly high energy prices

So much for price-fixing. The energy price cap is finally set to fall, with the result that the average household should have to pay no more than £2,074 a year for its energy from 1 July.

The price cap itself has fallen from £3,280, but bills were in practice limited by the government’s other great intervention in the energy market: the energy price guarantee. This was, in effect, a cap on the price cap which limited prices at a level where the average household paid no more than £2,500 a year. As a result, household bills will fall from an average of £2,500 to £2,074 – a drop of £426.

The fall will come as a relief to the Treasury and anyone else concerned by levels of public spending and borrowing.