one of the uk s biggest energy suppliers, bulb, is being saved from imminent collapse. it s the latest provider to be hit by rising wholesale gas prices but has too many customers to be taken over by another supplier. 1.7 million people will continue to have their energy supplied by bulb, while a special administrator considers how to deal with the situation. here s our business correspondent ben king. bulb was one of the most successful companies in taking on the big six energy suppliers which have dominated the uk market for the past couple of decades and i think what happened was that it got caught in the same bind that a lot of these other energy companies have got caught in. it says that energy prices were going up so fast and it could not pass those on to its customers. it said that a unit of gas that it paid 50p for a year ago was now
what has happened to bulb energy? hunter was one of the most successful challenges to the big six energy suppliers that have dominated the market in recent years ? back bulb energy was successful. it marketed itself as a green supplier with renewable electricity and carbon neutral gas and with over 1.7 million customers, it was too big to go through the process that of a failed energy companies have gone through, the so called supplier of last resort process, where they get transferred to another supplier. it is going on to something called the special administration scheme, which means it will keep trading with some government support, if necessary, until it can either be restructured, so put back on its feet financially, or sold, or indeed eventually shut down and customers transferred onto other suppliers in due course. what other suppliers in due course. what should customers other suppliers in due course. what should customers then other suppliers in due course. what should cu
domestic energy providers to go to the wall without any intervention there, so that relatively hands off approach will continue but there is pressure from industry, some conservative mps worried about the knock on effects of this crisis, but unless we see lots ofjobs on the line or the shutdown is in production becoming unsustainable, it seems it is pressure the government is willing to bear. and tomorrow morning andrew marr will be joined by the business secretary, kwasi kwarteng, and by the boss of one of the big six energy suppliers. that s at 9am here on bbc one. us officials and representatives of the taliban have met face to face for the first time since the militants took control of afghanistan in august. america maintains the talks in the qatari capital of doha, do not signal official recognition of taliban rule. in afghanistan the funerals have been taking place of some of the victims killed in yesterday s suicide bomb attack in the northern city of kunduz.
it was not unusual for supplies to go out of the market but i think what is different this time is the dramatic change in the costs those suppliers are facing. we expect more suppliers are facing. we expect more suppliers not to be able to face the circumstances women but it s hard to say more than that, partly because that means predicting what may happen to the global gas price. and of course they are not in a position to do that but there has been this proliferation of small to gas supplies. what we do know is that we are globally facing this huge spike in the cost wholesale gas, because of the price cap we have in the uk, companies are not able to pass that on to customers and so a lot of these smaller outlets are falling by the wayside. alice, thank you very much for now.
this is bbc news, i m ben brown. the headlines. avro energy and green become the latest energy suppliers to go out of business because of the spike in gas prices. it comes just hours after the energy regulator ofgem warned that hundreds of thousands of customers will have to move suppliers. this is a significant impact on the sector. it is something that we are breaking with government on, but we cannot make predictions about how that will play out. no trade deal in sight with the us but the prime minister says america will lift its ban on british lamb, for the first time in decades. the kebabs, the lamb burger is, the people the kebabs, the lamb burger is, the people of the kebabs, the lamb burger is, the people of the united states will be supplied people of the united states will be supplied at last by britain, and