How much does energy cost across the UK? Find out here and get tips on how you can shrink your energy bills
Average energy bills in 2025 are higher than they’ve been in years. This won’t come as a shock to millions of households around the UK, who’ve been paying more for their gas and electricity than ever before.
Still, it’s important to understand what an average energy bill looks like for several reasons. Firstly, you want to be able to compare your own bills with the average, so you can see whether you’re paying too much.
Secondly, so you can get a better understanding of what average means in the context of the energy price cap, which is due for an update from Ofgem on 1 October 2025.
In this article, we’re going to break down key information you’ll need on what the average energy bill looks like in 2025, which UK regions pay the most, why bills are rising, and how you can cut your bills in 2025.
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🔑 Key Points:
South West England pays the most for gas; the East Midlands pays the least
North Wales has the highest electricity prices; it’s cheapest in Southern Scotland
£1,709.28 is the average energy bill for a UK household
The next price cap rise will be announced August 27th and will cover the period 1 October 2025 to 31 December 2025
Getting solar panels is a great way to shield yourself from energy price rises
If you have an old, G-rated boiler, a heat pump can save you money
What’s the Average Energy Bill in 2025?
The average energy bill in the UK is currently £1,709.28. This is based on the most recent energy price cap from Ofgem, which runs from 1 July 2025 to 30 September 2025.
We’ve included standing charges here, which are currently:
29.82p per day for gas, or £108.84 per year
51.37p per day for electricity, or £187.50 per year
Your energy bill might look different as this is just an estimate using Ofgem data and assuming typical annual gas and electricity usage (11,500 kWh for gas and 2,700 kWh for electricity).
Electric VS Gas
The average electricity bill in the UK right now is £729.81 per year (minus the electricity standing charge), and for gas it’s £803.85 per year (minus the gas standing charge).
Electricity costs more than gas for several reasons, but primarily because of gas-fired power stations. These power stations supply around a third of all of the UK’s electricity, and they buy natural gas at wholesale prices. This means electricity prices in the UK are subject to market turbulence – if gas prices shoot up, power stations have to pay more, and the cost of your electricity bill increases.
There’s also environmental taxes and levies to consider. Over the past decade, the UK government has introduced taxes on electricity, and the money gained from this goes towards renewable energy production. Great news for reducing emissions, but bad news for UK households as the cost of electricity goes up.
Want to find out how you can stop wasting energy at home? Check out our guide on conducting a DIY home energy audit.
Energy Bills by Region: Who Pays the Most?
Using the latest energy price cap data from Ofgem, we can see that South West England currently pays the most for gas at an average of 6.58 pence per kWh. The East Midlands pays the least for gas, at 6.20 pence per kWh.
For electricity, North Wales is shelling out more than anywhere else in the country, spending 27.20 pence per kWh.
Southern Scotland is at the opposite end of the scale, paying a comparatively cheap 24.53 pence per kWh.
It might not sound like a big difference, but over a year it’ll add up. If we look at gas bills and use the average gas consumption of a typical three-bedroom home, the bills (not including the standing charge) look like this:
South West England will pay £756.70
East Midlands will pay £713
That’s a difference of £43.70! The gas standing charge for the East Midlands is slightly higher than the South West (29.64 pence per day versus 29.57 pence), but it doesn’t change the end result much. With the standing charge, households in the East Midlands pay £821.19, compared to £864.63 for the South West.
It’s a similar story when looking at the average electricity bills (minus the standing charge) for North Wales compared to Southern Scotland:
North Wales pays £734.40 for electricity
Southern Scotland pays £662.31 for electricity
When you add the standing charge, it gets even more unfair:
£981.32 for North Wales
£860.01 for Southern Scotland
Read more:
What’s Behind Rising Bills?
For most of 2025, energy rates have actually been quite flat. We’ve not seen anywhere near the volatility in energy prices we did between 2022 and 2023, but prices overall are still higher than before 2022’s big price hikes.
The reasons why are complicated and numerous, but broadly speaking, energy bills have been rising because of:
Global energy instability – The energy market was hit hard when Russia invaded Ukraine and much of the world moved away from Russian gas. As countries scrambled to buy gas from other sources, the prices shot up and this had the knock-on effect of increasing energy bills in the UK.
Our reliance on gas-fired power stations – Because so much of our electricity comes from gas-fired power stations, when the wholesale price of gas goes up, so does the cost of electricity.
Limited gas storage – We actually have a much lower level of gas storage capacity than many other countries in Europe. This means the UK often has to buy gas at short notice, which leaves the country more susceptible to volatile gas prices.
It’s also frustrating when the news reports that wholesale energy prices are falling, but energy bills aren’t. The reason for this is energy suppliers have to buy power in advance, before selling it to customers. So the rates at which a supplier has bought wholesale energy to sell could be quite different from whatever the current wholesale rate is.
They need to mitigate risk when buying energy too. Energy suppliers are always seeking to buy enough energy to meet demand, but if supply exceeds demand, then they’ll need to sell energy back to the grid. And if the rate they bought the energy at is higher than what they can sell it back to the grid, the supplier will lose money.
Basically, when rates are more volatile, the risks energy suppliers face are greater, and it requires a consistent streak of lower rates before any price drops can be passed on to UK households.
How to Cut Your Bills in 2025
There’s a lot you can do to cut your bills in 2025, despite the doom and gloom over rising energy prices.
You could start by investing in smart heating controls (check out the best smart thermostats), which can save you as much as £75 a year, according to the Energy Saving Trust. With a smart thermostat, you get clever features such as zonal heating, which allows you to only heat specific rooms in your home.
And speaking of thermostats, it’s worth considering turning your thermostat down when you can. Simply reducing your heating by a single degree can save up to £80 a year! Doing the same for your boiler flow temperature can cut your heating bill by around 8% too. A flow temperature of 60°C is the best for efficiency in most households.
One of the most effective ways to save money is by investing in insulation – your home will lose around a quarter of its heat through the roof for example. Insulating your loft might initially cost you £600-£1,100 (depending on the size of your property), but you’ll save up to £380 a year on your energy bills (while cutting your CO2 emissions by up to 1,000 kg a year).
Cavity wall insulation is a great investment too. The upfront cost can be quite high (around £2,700 for a semi-detached house), but you’ll save £240 a year on average and it’ll comfortably last 25-40 years (most installers offer 25+ year guarantees).
By making just a few of these changes to cut your bills, you’ll also be improving your home’s EPC rating.
If you’re not ready to spend money yet, you can still shrink your energy bills by making small behavioural changes. Steps such as only boiling the amount of water you need for a cup of tea (instead of a full kettle), or only running washing machines and dishwashers when full can save a surprising amount of money.
Keeping windows closed when heating or cooling a home will save money too, as will switching appliances off standby (around £45 a year according to the Energy Saving Trust).
Long-Term Solutions
To protect yourself in the long run from rising energy bills, it’s definitely worth thinking about installing technology such as solar panels and battery storage. With just a typical 4 kilowatt peak (kWp) solar panel system, you can save £465–£585 a year. If you export any excess electricity you don’t use via the Smart Export Guarantee, you could make an extra £80–£170 a year.
Solar panel costs are quite high – between £7,000–£12,000 for a 4.0 kWp system – but the payback period these days is only 10-15 years. If the cost of electricity per kWh goes up, the break-even point for solar panels will actually shrink too.
After the payback period, it’s pure profit from your solar panels. Considering your system will last 25-40 years, you could make several thousand pounds from your solar panels alone.
Combine your panels with battery storage, and you’ll spend even less on electricity from the grid (and potentially increase the profit you make).
Try it yourself: Use our Solar Energy Calculator to estimate savings based on your location and usage.
The Real Price of Power
The current energy price cap is £1,720 and has been so since 1 July 2025, running until 30 September 2025. Ofgem (the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets) reviews and updates the energy price cap every three months.
According to the Ofgem website, we can expect details for the next price cap to be announced 27 August 2025, which’ll give homeowners a full month to prepare.
We don’t know for sure if the price cap will increase or decrease at the moment, but energy market experts from Cornwall Insight believe it could fall to £1,698 (meaning cheaper bills overall for UK households). On the contrary, the latest predictions from EDF, British Gas, and E.on believe it could increase to 1,745.
Either way, it’s always a good idea to prepare just in case.
Next Steps For Your Solar Journey:
When planning to install solar panels for your home, there are several important factors to consider. Make sure to refer to the following guides to help you make informed decisions:
To dive deeper into these topics, head over to our advice section, check out our YouTube channel for informative videos, or read a customer case study to see how others have benefited from their solar installation.
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