of it all starts again on thursday and i think there will be a lot more people tuning in. and i think there will be a lot more peeple tuning in- three energy firms edf, octopus and scottishpower have been given permission to resume forcibly installing pre payment meters in some homes. the meters were fitted when people did not pay previous bills, and there was no prospect of payment. but the practice was suspended almost a year ago after agents for british gas were found to be breaking into the homes of vulnerable people to fit them. our cost of living correspondent colletta smith has more. energy debt is at a record high, so after an 11 month ban forcing a customer onto a prepayment meter is back on the cards. edf, octopus and scottishpower are the three companies who have been given the green light. that means they should have trawled through all of their past fittings identified any wrongfully installed metres, and done them and offered compensation.
doubled in a year to nearly £4 billion. the prime minister, who has made stopping small boats one of his top five priorities, said the cost was unacceptable . home office asylum spending rose by £1.85 billion in the year 2022 to 2023. travellers will be facing major disruption this bank holiday weekend as rail workers across england are due to walk out on saturday. some 20,000 rmt union members at 14 rail companies are striking as part of a long running dispute over pay. you are watching bbc news. energy prices in england, wales and scotland are set to fall. the energy regulator, ofgem, has announced a new, lower, price cap for energy bills from october. the typical household bill will fall by £151 to £1,923 a year. the drop is because of lower wholesale gas prices, but average bills will still be higher than they were two years ago. our cost of living correspondent colletta
but it s being welcomed by others who rely on income from their savings, especially retired people. ian in oldham is one of them. he s been speaking to our cost of living correspondent colletta smith. at 5.25%. yes! interest rates are up and there s plenty of people who are delighted. there s far more savers in the country than there are mortgage payers. we have had some reaction from jeremy hunt. he s got onejob. ian lives off his pension, but after squirrelling away money his whole working life, he has got a small savings pot tucked away. what impact are those rising rates having for you? thank you! you are rejoicing, then, today? as a saver, for the last ten years, i have had 0.1% on my savings. literally nothing. it doesn t pay your bus fare. interest rates going up, for me, is manna from heaven and it is about time. let s speak to gervais williams from the investment manager
available to rent receives, on average, 20 requests for a viewing, compared to six in 2019. in the north west of england, the pressure is even greater. our cost of living correspondent colletta smith is in manchester for us now. there is huge pressure on renters across the uk at the moment, despite the fact there is so much development going on in central manchester as there is across the uk. the number of properties available to rent has fallen over the last three years by 45%. that s happened at the same time as in the north west we ve huge increase in the number of people wanting to rent, a 53% increase. that is pushed up rent, a 53% increase. that is pushed up prices for everyone and even if you do have the money to get hold of a property, making sure your application is at the front has become even more difficult. and then you come to this amazing kitchen. |
to 20 requests on average. figures commissioned by the bbc from property portal rightmove show the area with the most demand is the north west of england, where viewing requests have more than quadrupled to 30 per property in the last three years. scotland had 27 requests to view each property, up from eight. and wales saw the number of requests per property jump from five to 20 since 2019. our cost of living correspondent colletta smith is in salford in greater manchester, one of the areas that has seen the most demand. there is a real crunch in the rental market happening right the way across the uk. the number of properties available to rent has fallen by 45%, according to the right move, over the last three years. at the same time here in the north west, there has been a bigger