You’ll have heard a lot about rising energy bills recently, which is a concern for everyone.
We want you to know that while your home is supplied with heating and hot water from a heat network, and you don’t have an individual gas boiler in your home, we’re here to help.
Over the past two years the wholesale price of gas has risen significantly. As countries recovered from the Global pandemic, increased demand resulted in supply shortages which caused the initial increases in wholesale gas prices. More recently, the war in Ukraine has threatened gas supplies driving prices to unprecedented levels.
The price of electricity has also risen as, in the UK, we use gas to generate electricity.
At Metropolitan, like many other companies, we buy gas to fuel our energy centres from the wholesale market. As a result, it costs us a lot more now than it did previously to buy the gas we need to supply you with heating and hot water.
While your home is supplied with heating and hot water from a heat network, and you don’t have an individual boiler in your home, the energy centres that heat our networks are fuelled by gas.
The energy price cap sets a maximum price that energy suppliers can charge customers for each kilowatt hour (kWh) of gas or electricity they use. How much you pay depends on how much you use.
The price cap only applies to gas and electricity prices and not to heat network prices, although our customers will still benefit from the new cap through their electricity prices.
Our customers will still be protected by the Metropolitan Price Promise.
Our Price Promise means it won’t cost you more to heat your home on one of our networks than it would if you owned and maintained your own gas boiler. To check our promise, you can use the Heat Trust Cost Calculator. How much customers pay will depend on how much they use.
This scheme has now closed.
The Energy Bills Support Scheme was put in place by the Government to support households with their rising bills this winter. Every UK household will receive a £400 discount, paid by their electricity supplier.
The discount will be applied to your household electricity bill in monthly instalments, for 6 months starting in October 2022. These payments will be made automatically, there is no need for you to apply. Watch out for fake offers or scams that ask for your personal details.
Please note that Metropolitan aren’t your electricity supplier and so you won’t see this discount appear on your heating and hot water bills.
This scheme has now closed.
The government has announced a 6-month scheme to support businesses with their rising energy costs. This scheme will run between October 2022 and March 2023. The government will provide a discount on wholesale gas and electricity prices for eligible non-domestic customers.
No. Living on a Metropolitan heat network won’t cost you more. Our Price Promise means it won’t cost you more to heat your home on one of our networks than it would if you owned and maintained your own gas boiler. To check our promise, you can use the Heat Trust Cost Calculator (heattrust.org/heat-cost-comparator). How much you pay will still depend on how much you use though.
As the costs to operate our heat networks rise and fall, we may need to adjust our prices. Our Price Promise means our prices won’t cost you more than if you owned and maintained an individual gas boiler though. To check our promise, you can use the Heat Trust Cost Calculator (heattrust.org/heat-cost-comparator).
We won’t change our prices more than twice a year and we’ll always give you at least 31 days’ notice.
Our customers pay an all-inclusive standing charge, that includes repair and replacement of any heat network equipment, plus maintenance and servicing costs. There are no additional bills for servicing or emergencies, giving our customers peace of mind that there won’t be any nasty surprises if something goes wrong.
We understand that rising prices are making it difficult to find the money to pay the household bills. If you’re worried about paying your bills, or think you might need a little extra support, we’re here to help – just get in touch as soon as possible. Find out more about how we can help.
We’re working hard to operate our heat networks as efficiently as possible for all our customers.
Although the majority of our customers live in newer properties with good energy efficiency levels, there are still some things you can do to reduce the amount of heat and hot water you use.