it s expected to reach the capital manila later today. coming up at 2.30 in we are england, we follow the night road teams working against the clock to maintain the a1. good afternoon and welcome to bbc news. the household energy supplier octopus energy has reached a deal to buy bulb, which was one of the largest energy companies to collapse last year because of soaring wholesale gas and electricity prices. the government has spent billions of pounds keeping the company afloat since it went into administraton. the agreement means octopus will take onboard bulb s 1.5 million customers. bulb is the biggest - green energy company. it was the biggest energy company to go bust. last november, bulb found itself in administration. it was only kept going by the government, who pumped hundreds of millions of pounds into the business, but now a deal has been struck that it is hoped will give relief notjust to customers, taxpayers but also hundreds of staff. today, octopus were confiden
target in the next couple of months. and what that said is that the very difficult decisions that we took when inflation was over 11% have borne fruit, and we now need to stick with that approach which is clearly working. but mobile, broadband prices are going up, living costs, housing, that s going up as well. it s still quite tough for people. it is very tough. and we have been through a very tough period. but when it comes to living standards, 18 months ago, the obr said we would have the biggest decline in living standards for half a century, actually, they have gone up and they are now saying we will return to pre pandemic living standards two years earlier than they thought. so what we see is overall a picture that is much more positive than before, but we need to be sensible, cautious, prudent on the approach we take going forward. sensible, cautious and prudent. we have been hearing a lot from the person who appointed you chancellor, liz truss,
Broadband and internet companies can increase their prices mid-contract and rises of up to 17.3 percent are expected from next month, meaning millions of Britons will now be paying over £100 more.
in the gas price, which is easing off a bit but not that much. competition in the energy industry has disappeared, and i don t really see it coming back in the same sense it did before. and i think for customers that probably a good thing. they don t have to work hard at trying to find a few pounds here and there off their bills. but how it will work in future, nobody really knows, it s all up in the air at the moment. i really knows, it s all up in the air at the moment. really knows, it s all up in the air at the moment. i want to ask you about another at the moment. i want to ask you about another issue at the moment. i want to ask you about another issue you - at the moment. i want to ask you about another issue you have - about another issue you have discussed, broadband prices. ofcom have warned that providers shouldn t hike up prices in line with inflation. what did they say and what can be done? we inflation. what did they say and what can be done? inflation. what did they