Thousands of households to be hit with more price rises as cost of living surges

Thousands of households are set to be hit with a rise in the cost of bin collections and TV packages, along with another energy price increase.

The moves by Panda Recycling, Thorntons Recycling, Panda Power, Pinergy and Sky TV will increase cost-of-living pressures on consumers.

It comes at a time when inflation is at 5.1pc, with energy, petrol and diesel and a host of other goods and services rising in price.

Pinergy is to hit its customers with a fifth electricity price rise this year from next month.

The 19pc rise will add €293 to annual bills, which will be up by €800 when the five rises are added together.

Pinergy offers customers pre-pay meters, and has also been offering bill-pay options to customers lately. It does not generate its own electricity, but is instead a reseller of power.

Panda Power, which is part of the Beauparc group that was sold for €1.3bn recently, has also announced its fifth price rise this year. Prices were also raised in April, June, August and October.

Prices are to rise by 18.5pc for electricity and the same for gas from November.

The latest rise will add around €308 to the average customer’s annual electricity bill and €217 to their gas bill.

Chairman of the Consumers Association Michael Kilcoyne said many householders were now close to the brink financially due to a string of price rises.

“People are being pushed over the edge. Many people can’t afford these price increases that seem to be coming every day now,” he said.

He called on the Government to cut the Vat on utility bills and other services that households are forced to buy.

Each price rise for a service means the Government takes in more Vat, he said.

“They could cut the Vat rate of 13.5pc to 9pc for the hospitality sector so they should do it for consumers,” he said.

When previous price increases this year are taken into account, customers will be paying almost €800 extra annually for their electricity and almost €450 more for their gas, according to Daragh Cassidy of price comparison site Bonkers.ie.

“It’s a huge sum of money and many households will clearly struggle this winter with energy bills,” he said.

Panda Power, like all suppliers, is at the mercy of wholesale energy costs and factors outside of its control, Mr Cassidy said. However, the smaller suppliers seem to be struggling the most.

Electric Ireland and Bord Gáis Energy’s recent price hikes have been far smaller, he said.

Panda Recycling, which is part of the same group, has written to its customers to tell them its bin collection services will increase in price by 4.8pc from the start of next month.

This will add €1.20 a month to the cost of bin-lifting services. Panda is the largest waste company in the State.

An email to Panda Recycling customers said: “Unfortunately, as with most industries in recent times, external factors that comprise the cost of providing our services to you have risen. Rest assured that we are doing everything possible to minimise these costs.”

The Beauparc Utilities group saw its pre-tax profits rise last year by 23.5pc to €34.74m.

And Thorntons Waste is increasing its annual service charge for householders from €70 to €75.

Sky Ireland is increasing the cost of TV packages by 3.4pc from the start of December. The move will mean price rises of up to €32 a year for subscribers, depending on which package they have for their satellite service. There is no increase in broadband prices.

A Sky Ireland spokesperson said: “We know price increases are never welcome, but we hope our customers can see that we continue to deliver the best entertainment experience available.”

Paul Sommerville, of Sommerville Advisory Markets, said we are in a period of low economic growth and fast-rising prices.

“With GDP (gross domestic product) growth rates slowing abruptly in USA and China and inflation soaring across the globe, it is clear we are currently experiencing a period of stagflation, ie slowing growth but high inflation.

“The question for 2022 will be if these pressures in food and commodity inflation, in particular, ease off or, more worryingly, persist while GDP growth rates tail off – a toxic cocktail.”

Consumers are being repeatedly hit hard by price hikes.

There have been more than 30 price increase announcements by energy companies. This means electricity and gas bills are set to rise by between €500 and €800 this year.

Home-heating costs are up by 46pc in the past year.

Petrol and diesel prices have shot up on the back of a surge in the cost of a barrel of oil. It now costs €100 to fill the average car. And second-hand car prices are up 16pc.

There are fears that European interest rates could rise next year, with markets pricing in a 0.25pc rise in the European Central Bank rate by this time next year.

Figures last week from the European statistics agency, Eurostat, showed prices rising at a rate of 5.1pc here last month. This is a level of inflation not seen since the Celtic Tiger boom.

However, consumers feel prices are rising faster than the official rate.

This is particularly the case for those in their 30s and 40s who have families and for those living outside of Dublin, according to KBC Bank.