Category: Essentials of Economics: Ch 02

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Will the housing market growth end with a crash? (updated 1/10/22)

In July this year, the UK saw the highest annual house price inflation rate since May 2003. The housing market is experiencing an excess demand for houses. There is a greater demand from buyers than there are homes for sale. This has led to a double-digit annual rise for the 10th consecutive month. Nationwide building society data show that UK house prices rose by 10% in the year to August 2022, with the typical property price rising by £50 000 in the past two years to £273 751.

The market has seen this continued growth in house prices despite the growing pressure on buyers’ budgets. It is even reported that estate agents are seeing a recent surge in activity. However, can the housing market continue to grow, or will we witness a crash?

House market activity

There are also signs that the housing market is now losing some momentum. According to the Nationwide, the average price of a home was £294 260 in August, 0.4% higher than the previous month. Although this marked another record high, the rise was less than earlier in the year. Halifax called the monthly rise ‘relatively modest’ compared with the rapid house price inflation that has been seen in recent times, where the average monthly increase in house prices has been 0.9%. The latest increase marked a return to growth for house prices, after they fell in July for the first time in more than a year.

However, the annual growth did slow in August, despite house prices still growing. The annual rate of house price growth dropped to 11.5% from 11.8% in July – the lowest level in three months. The Nationwide is predicting that an increase in energy costs and rising mortgage interest rates will add to the pressure on household budgets in the coming months. Energy prices are continually rising, and it is suggested that the least energy-efficient properties could typically see bills surge by £2700 a year, or £225 a month. This added squeeze on households’ disposable income, combined with the expectation that that inflation is set to remain in double digits into next year, is predicted to slow house price increases further or even cause them to fall.

Barratt Developments, the country’s biggest housebuilder, stated that the number of homes reserved each week until the end of August had fallen below the level of a year earlier, and was now lower than before the coronavirus pandemic. This has been partly driven by people anticipating further rises in interest rates and provides further evidence of a slowdown in the housing market.

Bank of England decisions on interest rates

In early August, the Bank of England announced its biggest increase in interest rates in 27 years, taking the UK base rate from 1.25% to 1.75%, a 13-year high. This rise in the base rate, which has a knock-on effect on other interest rates, was an attempt to control rising inflation as energy and food prices soared.

Then, on Thursday 22nd September, the Bank of England announced a further 0.5 percentage point rise in the base rate to 2.25%. This is now the highest level for 14 years, but this is unlikely to be the peak as it is expected that the Bank will continue raising rates into next year.

The government’s mini-Budget on 23 September involved a price cap on energy prices, estimated to cost around £150 billion, and various tax cuts. The package would be funded largely by borrowing. This is likely to drive interest rates up further. Indeed, in response to the package, the interest rate on new government bonds soared and price of existing bonds (which pay a fixed amount per annum) correspondingly fell, thereby increasing their yield. Yields rose above 4%; they were just 1.3% rate at the start of the year.

These further increases in interest rates will have a negative impact on the market as they feed through to mortgage rates, which have already increased noticeably recently. Indeed, following the mini-Budget and the rise in bond prices, around half the mortgage products on offer to new buyers or those re-mortgaging were withdrawn. Many households with mortgages will thus see their costs rise. Experts have warned that borrowers in the UK are especially exposed, with many people having mortgages tracking central bank rates or having short-term fixed deals set to expire. Those on fixed-rate deals will not be immediately affected, although their costs could jump when their deals come up for renewal.

The impact of a recession

Even though the housing market is slowing, it is nowhere near a crash. But, with the Bank of England predicting a recession, there is concern about the impact on the housing market. In August, the Bank had warned that Britain was likely to enter into a recession by December this year and predicted it to last 15 months. However, with the announcement of higher interest rates, the Bank now warns that the UK may already be in a recession. The central bank had previously expected the economy to grow between July and September, but it now believes it will have shrunk by 0.1%. This comes after the economy already shrank slightly between April and June.

A recession is defined as when an economy shrinks for two consecutive quarters. During a recession, house prices typically flatline or decrease but it all depends on how severe the recession is. Historically, when there is a deep and prolonged contraction in the economy with rising unemployment, house prices tend to fall.

Finance experts have predicted that the UK will suffer its longest downturn since the 2008 financial crisis. The global financial crisis saw the availability of mortgage finance contract, making it much harder for people to borrow, thereby reducing the demand for homes. This, together with rising unemployment, resulted in average house prices falling by 12%. It was not until 2010 that the housing market in London began to recover and not until 2013 in the wider UK market.

The BoE’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) have warned:

Real household post-tax income is projected to fall sharply in 2022 and 2023, while consumption growth turns negative.

This will be the first recession in the UK since the height of the Covid crisis 2020. However, then the housing market didn’t behave in the typical way and property prices continued rising. This was fuelled by people working from home, which encouraged both house movers and first-time buyers to seek houses with sufficient space. The housing market has been rampant ever since as people have taken advantage of low interest rates and also of the stamp duty holiday between July 2020 and September 2021 (see the blog, The red hot housing market).

This time, however, the predicted recession could finally put the brakes on growing house prices as people’s real incomes fall. With people faced with higher mortgage rates and the cost-of-living squeeze, the growth in demand for property is likely to slow rapidly: to 5% in the second half of this year and then lower still in 2023. This could eventually match the supply of property. Supply may also increase as a result of an increase in repossessions as people struggle to pay their monthly mortgage bills.

Cuts to stamp duty

In his mini-Budget on 23 September, the new Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, announced that stamp duty on house purchases would be cut. The threshold at which buyers have to start paying the duty would rise from £125 000 to £250 000 and first-time buyers would not pay any duty on the first £425 000.

This cut in tax on house purchase will go some way to offsetting the effect of rising mortgage interest rates and is likely to reduce the slowdown in house price rises.

First time buyers

A recession could actually help some people climb onto the property ladder if it pushes property prices down. That would lead to smaller deposits being needed and lower total amounts having to be borrowed.

However, despite the prospect of falling house prices, it still remains tough for first-time buyers. The biggest risk for hopeful homebuyers in a recession is losing their job. At a time of increased uncertainty, some first-time buyers are likely to wait, hoping that homes will become cheaper. However, there have only been 31 months in the past 20 years when house prices have fallen, all of which occurred between 2008 and 2012. Myron Jobson, senior personal finance analyst at Interactive Investor said:

Fast-rising rents are not offering any relief and could keep some buyers in the hunt for a home for longer than they would like.

Also, prices are not yet actually falling, even though demand is slowing. Demand for homes is still outstripping the available housing inventory. This means that the market is still a difficult one for first-time buyers and those looking to climb up the property ladder.

At first sight, it may seem that cuts to stamp duty will help first-time buyers, especially as the duty is paid after a higher threshold than for other purchasers. However, the stamp duty cuts will stimulate demand, which, as we argued above, will reduce the slowdown in house price rises. Also, despite the threshold being higher for first-time buyers, by stimulating house price inflation, most if not all the gains in the duty cut could be offset and could risk pricing-out first-time buyers.

Conclusion

The economic outlook is uncertain. However, the rises in the energy price cap in October and beyond, and the general rise on the cost of living as prices rise faster than wages, are expected to increase pressure on household finances, which will limit the amount that prospective house buyers can afford to borrow. As a result, house price inflation is expected to fall across the majority of UK regions, as buyer demand eases. But just how much house price inflation will fall and whether it will turn negative (i.e. a fall in house prices) is hard to predict

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Questions

  1. With the aid of a diagram, explain the current demand and supply in the housing market.
  2. How does an expectation of a rise in interest rates affect the demand for housing?
  3. Define the term recession. Why is the UK likely to enter recession (if it has not already done so)?
  4. Describe the characteristics of the business cycle during a recession.
  5. How do expectations of house price increases affect actual house price increases?
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Soaring gas prices (updated 1/10/22)

International wholesale gas prices have soared in recent months. This followed a cold winter in 2021/22 across Europe, the bounceback in demand as economies opened up after COVID and, more recently, pressure on supplies since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting restricted gas supplies from Russia. The price of gas traded on the UK wholesale market is shown in Chart 1 (click here for a PowerPoint). Analysts are forecasting that the wholesale price of gas will continue to rise for some time. The higher price of gas has had a knock-on effect on wholesale electricity prices, as gas-fired power stations are a major source of electricity generation and electricity prices.

In the UK, domestic fuel prices were capped by the regulator, Ofgem. The cap reflected wholesale prices and was designed to allow electricity suppliers to make reasonable but not excessive profits. The cap was adjusted every six months, but this was been reduced to three months to reflect the rapidly changing situation. Prices are capped for both gas and electricity for both the standing charge and the rate per kilowatt hour (kWh). This is illustrated in Chart 2 (click here for a PowerPoint).

The effects of the cap were then projected in terms of a total annual bill for a typical household consuming 12 000 kWh of gas and 2900 kWh of electricity. Chart 3 shows the typical fuel bill for the last four price caps and, prior to the mini-Budget of 23 September, the projected price caps for the first and second quarters of 2023 based on forecasts at the time of wholesale prices (click here for a PowerPoint). As you can see, wholesale gas and electricity prices account for an increasing proportion of the total bill. The remaining elements in cost consist of profits (1.9% assumed), VAT (5%), operating costs, grid connection costs and green levies (around £153). The chart shows that, without government support for prices, the price cap would have risen by 80.6% in October 2022 and was projected to rise by a further 51% in January 2023 and by another 23% in March 2023. If this were to have been the case, then prices would have risen by 481% between the summer of 2021 and March 2023.

This was leading to dire warnings of extreme fuel poverty, with huge consequences for people’s health and welfare, which would put extra demands on an already stretched health service. Many small businesses would not be able to survive the extra fuel costs, which would lead to bankruptcies and increased unemployment.

Future wholesale gas prices

Energy market analysts expect wholesale gas prices to remain high throughout 2023, with little likelihood that gas supplies from Russia will increase. Some European countries, such as Germany, have been buying large amounts of gas to fill storage facilities before winter and before prices rise further. This has added to demand.

The UK, however, has only limited storage facilities. Although it is not an importer of gas from Russia and so, in one sense, storage facilities are less important at the current time, wholesale gas prices reflect international demand and supply and thus gas prices in the UK will be directly affected by an overall global shortage of supply.

What would have been the response to the projected rise in gas prices? Eventually demand would fall as substitute fuels are used for electricity generation. But demand is highly inelastic. People cannot readily switch to alternative sources of heating. Most central heating is gas fired. People may reduce consumption of energy by turning down their heating or turning it off altogether, but such reductions are likely to be a much smaller percentage than the rise in price. Thus, despite some use of other fuels and despite people cutting their energy usage, people would still end up spending much more on energy.

Over the longer term, new sources of supply of gas, including liquified natural gas (LNG), may increase supply. And switching to green energy sources for electricity generation, may bring the price of electricity back down and lead to some substitution been gas and electricity in the home and businesses. Also improved home insulation and the installation of heat pumps and solar panels in homes, especially in new builds, may reduce the demand for gas. But these changes take time. Chart 4 illustrates the situation (click here for a PowerPoint).

Both demand and supply are relatively inelastic. The initial demand and supply curves are D1 and S1. Equilibrium price is P1 (point a). There is now a fall in supply. Supply shifts to S2. With an inelastic demand, there is a large rise in price to P2 (point b).

Over two or three years, there is a modest fall in demand (as described above) to D2 and a modest rise in supply to S3. Price falls back somewhat to P3 (point c). Over a longer period of time, these shifts would be greater and the price would fall further.

Possible policy responses

What could the government do to alleviate the problem? Consensus was that the new Conservative Prime Minister, Liz Truss, and her Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, would have to take radical measures if many households were to avoid severe hardship and debt. One proposal was to reduce VAT on domestic energy from 5% to zero and to cut green levies. Although this would help, it would make only a relatively small dent in people’s rising bills.

Another proposal was to give people cash payments to help with their bills. The more generous and widespread these payments, the more costly they would be.

One solution here would be to impose larger windfall taxes on oil and gas producers (as opposed to retailers). Their profits have soared as oil and gas prices have soared. Such a move is generally resisted by those on the right of politics, arguing that it could discourage investment in energy production. Those on the centre and left of politics argue that the profits are the result of global factors and not because of wise business decisions by the energy producers. A windfall tax would only take away these excess profits.

The EU has agreed a tax on fossil fuel companies’ surplus profits made either this year or next. It is also introducing a levy on the excess revenues that other low-cost power producers make from higher electricity prices.

Another proposal was to freeze retail energy prices at the current or some other level. This would make it impossible for energy suppliers to cover their costs and so they would have to be subsidised. This again would be very expensive and would require substantially increased borrowing at a time when interest rates are rising, or increased taxation at a time when people’s finances are already squeezed by higher inflation. An alternative would be to cap the price North Sea producers receive. As around half of the UK’s gas consumption is from the North Sea, this would help considerably if it could be achieved, but it might be difficult to do so given that the gas is sold onto international markets.

One proposal that was gaining support from energy producers and suppliers is for the government to set up a ‘deficit fund’. Energy suppliers (retailers) would freeze energy prices for two years and take out state-backed loans from banks. These would then be paid back over time by prices being capped sufficiently high to cover costs (which, hopefully, by then would be lower) plus repayments.

Another policy response would be to decouple electricity prices from the wholesale price of gas. This is being urgently considered in the EU, and Ofgem is also consulting on such a measure. This could make wholesale electricity prices reflect the costs of the different means of generation, including wind, solar and nuclear, and would see a fall in wholesale electricity prices. At the moment, generators using these methods are making large profits.

The government’s response

On September 23, the government held a mini-Budget. One of its key elements was a capping of the unit price of energy for both households and firms. The government called this the Energy Price Guarantee. For example, those households on a variable dual-fuel, direct-debit tariff would pay no more than 34.0p/kWh for electricity and 10.3p/kWh for gas. Standing charges are capped at 46p per day for electricity and 28p per day for gas. These rates will apply for 2 years from 1/10/22 and should give an average annual household bill of £2500.

Although the government has widely referred to the ‘£2500 cap’, it is the unit price that is capped, not the annual bill. It is still the case that the more you consume, the more you will pay. As you can see from Chart 3, the average £2500 still represents an average increase per annum of just over £500 per household and is almost double the cap of £1277 a year ago. It will thus still put considerable strain on many household finances.

For businesses, prices will be capped for 6 months from 1 October at 21.1p per kWh for electricity and 7.5p per KWh for gas – considerably lower than for domestic consumers.

The government will pay subsidies to the retail energy companies to allow them to make sufficient, but not excess, profit. These subsidies are estimated to cost around £150 billion. This will be funded by borrowing, not by tax increases, with the government ruling out a windfall tax on North Sea oil and gas extracting companies. Indeed, the mini-Budget contained a number of tax reductions, including scrapping the 45% top rate of income tax, cutting the basic rate of income tax from 20% to 19% and scrapping the planned rise in corporation tax from 19% to 25%.

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Data

Questions

  1. Why are the demand and supply of gas relatively inelastic with respect to price?
  2. Why are the long-run elasticities of demand and supply of gas likely to be greater than the short-run elasticities?
  3. Find out how wholesale electricity prices are determined. Is there a case for reforming the system and, if so, how?
  4. Identify ways in which people could be protected from rising energy bills.
  5. Assess these different methods in terms of (a) targeting help to those most in need; (b) economic efficiency.
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The surging price of oil: a question of supply and demand

Global oil prices (Brent crude) reached $128 per barrel on 9 March, a level not seen for 10 years and surpassed only in the run up to the financial crisis in 2008. Oil prices are determined by global demand and supply, and the current surge in prices is no exception.

A rise in demand and/or a fall in supply will lead to a rise in the price. Given that both demand and supply are relatively price inelastic, such shifts can cause large rises in oil prices. Similarly, a fall in demand or rise in supply can lead to a large fall in oil prices.

These changes are then amplified by speculation. Traders try to get ahead of price changes. If people anticipate that oil prices will rise, they will buy now, or make a contract to buy more in the future at prices quoted today by buying on the oil futures market. This then pushes up both spot (current) prices and futures prices. If demand or supply conditions change, speculation will amplify the reaction to such a change.

What has happened since 2019?

In 2019, oil was typically trading at around $60 to $70 per barrel. It then fell dramatically in early 2020 as the onset of COVID-19 led to a collapse in demand, for both transport and industry. The price fell below $20 in late April (see charts: click here for a PowerPoint).

Oil prices then rose rapidly as demand recovered somewhat but supply chains, especially shipping, were suffering disruptions. By mid-2021, oil was once more trading at around $60 to $70 per barrel. But then demand grew more strongly as economic recovery from COVID accelerated. But supply could not grow so quickly. By January 2022, Brent crude had risen above $80 per barrel.

Then worries began to grow about Russian intentions over Ukraine as Russia embarked on large-scale military exercises close to the border with Ukraine. People increasingly disbelieved Russia’s declarations that it had no intention to invade. Russia is the world’s second biggest producer of oil and people feared that deliberate disruptions to supply by Russia or other countries banning imports of Russian oil would cause supply shortages. Speculation thus drove up the oil price. By 23 February, the day before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Brent crude had risen to $95.

With the Russian invasion, moves were made by the EU the USA and other countries to ban or limit the purchase of Russian oil. This increased the demand for non-Russian oil.

On 8 March, the USA announced that it was banning the import of Russian oil with immediate effect. The same day, the UK announced that it would phase out the import of Russian oil and oil products by the end of 2022.

The EU is much more dependent on Russian oil imports, which account for around 27% of EU oil consumption and 2/3 of extra-EU oil imports. Nevertheless, it announced that it would accelerate the move away from Russian oil and gas and towards green alternatives. By 8 March, Brent crude had risen to $128 per barrel.

The question was then whether other sources of supply would help to fill the gap. Initially it seemed that OPEC+ (excluding Russia) would not increase production beyond the quotas previously agreed by the cartel to meet recovery in world demand. But then, on 9 March, the UAE Ambassador to Washington announced that the county favoured production increases and would encourage other OPEC members to follow suit. With the announcement, the oil price fell by 11% to £111. But the next day, it rose again somewhat as the UAE seemed to backtrack, but then fell back slightly as OPEC said there was no shortage of oil.

This is obviously an unfolding story with the suffering of the Ukrainian people at its heart. But the concepts of supply and demand and their price elasticity and the role of speculation are central to understanding what will happen to oil prices in the coming months with all the consequences for poverty and economic hardship.

Articles

Data

Questions

  1. Use a demand and supply diagram to illustrate what has happened to oil prices over the past two years. How has the size of the effects been dependent on the price elasticity of demand for oil and the price elasticity of supply of oil?
  2. Use a demand and supply diagram to show what has been happening to the price of natural gas over the past two years. Are the determinants similar to those in the oil market? How do they differ (if at all)?
  3. What policy options are open to governments to deal with soaring energy prices?
  4. What are the distributional consequences of the rise in energy prices? (see the blog: Rise in the cost of living.)
  5. Under what circumstances are oil prices over the next six months likely (a) fall; (b) continue rising?
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End of the bull run?

With the onset of the pandemic in early 2020, stock markets around the world fell dramatically, with many indices falling by 30% or more. In the USA, the Dow Jones fell by 37% and the Nasdaq fell by 30%. In the UK, the FTSE 100 fell by 33% and the FTSE 250 by 41%.

But with a combination of large-scale government support for their economies, quantitative easing by central banks and returning confidence of investors, stock markets then made a sustained recovery and have continued to grow strongly since – until recently, that is.


With inflation well above target levels, central banks have ended quantitative easing (QE) or have indicated that they soon will. Interest rates are set to rise, if only slowly. The Bank of England raised Bank Rate from its historic low of 0.1% to 0.25% on 16 December 2021 and ceased QE, having reached its target of £895 billion of asset purchases. On 4 February 2022, it raised Bank Rate to 0.5%. The Fed has announced that it will gradually raise interest rates and will end QE in March 2022, and later in the year could begin selling some of the assets it has purchased (quantitative tightening). The ECB is not ending QE or raising interest rates for the time being, but is likely to do so later in the year.

At the same time economic growth is slowing, leading to fears of stagflation. Governments are likely to dampen growth further by tightening fiscal policy. In the UK, national insurance is set to rise by 1.25 percentage points in April.

The slowdown in growth may discourage central banks from tightening monetary policy more than very slightly. Indeed, in the light of its slowing economy, the Chinese central bank cut interest rates on 20 January 2022. Nevertheless, it is likely that the global trend will be towards tighter monetary policy.

The fears of slowing growth and tighter monetary and fiscal policy have led many stock market investors to predict an end to the rise in stock market prices – an end to the ‘bull run’. This belief was reinforced by growing tensions between Russia and NATO countries and fears (later proved right) that Russia might invade Ukraine with all the turmoil in the global economy that this would entail. Stock market prices have thus fallen.

The key question is what will investors believe. If they believe that share prices will continue to fall they are likely to sell. This has happened since early January, especially in the USA and especially with stocks in the high-tech sector – such stocks being heavily represented in the Nasdaq composite, a broad-based index that includes over 2500 of the equities listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange. From 3 January to 18 February the index fell from 15 833 to 13 548, a fall of 14.4%. But will this fall be seen as enough to reflect the current economic and financial climate. If so, it could fluctuate around this sort of level.

However, some may speculate that the fall has further to go – that indices are still too high to reflect the earning potential of companies – that the price–earnings ratio is still too high for most shares. If this is the majority view, share prices will indeed fall.

Others may feel that 14.4% is an overcorrection and that the economic climate is not as bleak as first thought and that the Omicron coronavirus variant, being relatively mild for most people, especially if ‘triple jabbed’, may do less economic damage than first feared. In this scenario, especially if the tensions over Ukraine are diffused, people are likely to buy shares while they are temporarily low.

But a lot of this is second-guessing what other people will do – known as a Keynesian beauty contest situation. If people believe others will buy, they will too and this will push share prices up. If they think others will sell, they will too and this will push share prices down. They will all desperately wish they had a crystal ball as they speculate how people will interpret what central banks, governments and other investors will do.

Articles

Questions

  1. What changes in real-world factors would drive investors to (a) buy (b) sell shares at the current time?
  2. How does quantitative easing affect share prices?
  3. What is meant by the price-earnings ratio of a share? Is it a good indicator as to the likely movement of that share’s price? Explain.
  4. What is meant by a Keynesian beauty contest? How is it relevant to the stock market?
  5. Distinguish between stabilising and destabilising speculation and illustrate each with a demand and supply diagram. Explain the concept of overshooting in this context.
  6. Which is more volatile, the FTSE 100 or the FTSE 250? Explain.
  7. Read the final article linked above. Were the article’s predictions about the Fed meeting on 26 January borne out? Comment.
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The energy crisis

The global battle for fuel is expected to peak this winter. The combination of rising demand and a tightening of supply has sparked concerns of shortages in the market. Some people are worried about another ‘winter of discontent’. Gas prices have risen fivefold in Europe as a whole.

In the UK, consumers are likely to find that the natural gas needed to heat their homes this October will cost at least five times more than it did a year ago. This surge in wholesale gas prices has seen several UK energy suppliers stop trading as they are unable to make a profit. This is because of an energy price cap for some consumers and various fixed price deals they had signed with their customers.

There are thus fears of an energy crisis in the UK, especially if there is a cold winter. There are even warnings that during a cold snap, gas supply to various energy-intensive firms may be cut off. This comes at a time when some of these industries are struggling to make a profit.

Demand and supply

The current situation is a combination of long- and short-term factors. In spring 2020, the demand for gas actually decreased due to the pandemic. This resulted in low gas prices, reduced UK production and delayed maintenance work and investment along global supply chains. However, since early 2021, consumer demand for gas has soared. First, there was an increased demand due to the Artic weather conditions last winter. This was then followed by heatwaves in the USA and Europe over the summer, which saw an increase in the use of air conditioning units. With the increased demand combined with calm weather conditions, wind turbines couldn’t supply enough power to meet demand.

There has also been a longer-term impact on demand throughout the industry due to the move to cleaner energy. The transitioning to wind and solar has seen a medium-term increase in the demand for gas. There is also a long-term impact of the target for net zero economies in the UK and Europe. This has hindered investors’ willingness to invest in developing supplies of fossil fuels due the fact they could become obsolete over the next few decades.

Nations have also been unable to build up enough supplies for winter. This is partly due to Europe’s domestic gas stocks having declined by 30% per cent in the past decade. This heightened situation is leading to concerns that there will be black-outs or cut-offs in gas this winter.

Importation of gas

A concern for the UK is that it has scant storage facilities with no long-term storage. The UK currently has very modest amounts of storage – less than 6% of annual demand and some five times less than the average in the rest of Europe. It has been increasingly operating a ‘just-in-time model’, which is more affected by short-term price fluctuations in the wholesale gas market. With wind power generation remaining lower than average during summer 2021, more gas than usual has been used to generate electricity, leaving less gas to go into storage.

However, some argue that the problem is not just the UK’s physical supply of gas but demand for gas from elsewhere. Around half of the UK’s supply comes from its own production sites, while the rest is piped in from Europe or shipped in as liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the USA, Qatar and Russia. In 2019, the UK imported almost 20% of its gas through LNG shipments. However, Asian gas demand has grown rapidly, expanding by 50% over the past decade. This has meant that LNG has now become much harder to secure.

The issue is the price the UK has to pay to continue receiving these supplies. Some in the gas industry believe the price surge is only temporary, caused by economic disruptions, while many others say it highlights a structural weakness in a continent that has become too reliant on imported gas. It can be argued that the gas crisis has highlighted the lack of a coherent strategy to manage the gas industry as the UK transitions to a net zero economy. The lack of any industry investment in new capacity suggests that there is currently no business case for new long-term storage in the UK, especially as gas demand is expected to continue falling over the longer term.

Impact on consumers and industry

Gas prices for suppliers have increased fivefold over the past year. Therefore, many companies face a considerable rise in their bills. MSome may need to reduce or pause production – or even cease trading – which could cause job losses. Alternatively, they could pass on their increased costs to customers by charging them higher prices. Although energy-intensive industries are particularly exposed, every company that has to pay energy bills will be affected. Due to the growing concerns about the security of winter gas supplies those industries reliant on gas, such as the fertiliser industry, are restricting production, threatening various supply chains.

Most big domestic gas suppliers buy their gas months in advance, meaning they will most likely pass on the higher price rises they have experienced in the past few months. The increased demand and decreased supply has already meant meant that customers have faced higher prices for their energy. The UK has been badly hit because it’s one of Europe’s biggest users of natural gas – 85% of homes use gas central heating – and it also generates a third of the country’s electricity.

The rising bills are particularly an issue for those customers on a variable tariff. About 15 million households have seen their energy bills rise by 12% since the beginning of October due to the rise in the government’s energy price cap calculated by the regulator, Ofgem. A major concern is that this increase in bills comes at a time when the need to use more heating and lighting is approaching. It also coincides with other price rises hitting family budgets and the withdrawal of COVID support schemes.

Government intervention – maximum pricing

If the government feels that the equilibrium price in a particular market is too high, it can intervene in the market and set a maximum price. When the government intervenes in this way, it sets a price ceiling on certain basic goods or services and does not permit the price to go above that set limit. A maximum price is normally set for reasons of fairness and to benefit consumers on low incomes. Examples include energy price caps to order to control fuel bills, rent controls in order to improve affordability of housing, a cap on mobile roaming charges within the EU and price capping for regional monopoly water companies.

The energy price cap

Even without the prospect of a colder than normal winter, bills are still increasing. October’s increase in the fuel cap means that many annual household fuel bills will rise by £135 or more. The price cap sets the maximum price that suppliers in England, Wales and Scotland can charge domestic customers on a standard, or default tariff. The cap has come under the spotlight owing to the crisis among suppliers, which has seen eleven firms fold, with more expected.

The regulator Ofgem sets a price cap for domestic energy twice a year. The latest level came into place on 1 October. It is a cap on the price of energy that suppliers can charge. The price cap is based on a broad estimate of how much it costs a supplier to provide gas and electricity services to a customer. The calculation is mainly made up of wholesale energy costs, network costs such as maintaining pipes and wires, policy costs including Government social and environmental schemes, operating costs such as billing and metering services and VAT. Therefore, suppliers can only pass on legitimate costs of supplying energy and cannot charge more than the level of the price cap, although they can charge less. A household’s total bill is still determined by how much gas and electricity is used.

  • Those on standard tariffs, with typical household levels of energy use, will see an increase of £139.
  • People with prepayment meters, with average energy use, will see an annual increase of £153.
  • Households on fixed tariffs will be unaffected. However, those coming to the end of a contract are automatically moved to a default tariff set at the new level.

Ordinarily, customers are able to shop around for cheaper deals, but currently, the high wholesale prices of gas means that cheaper deals are not available.

Despite the cap limiting how much providers can raise prices, the current increase is the biggest (and to the highest amount) since the cap was introduced in January 2019. As providers are scarcely making a profit on gas, there are concerns that a further increase in wholesale prices will cause more suppliers to be forced out of business. Ofgem said that the cap is likely to go up again in April, the next time it is reviewed.

Conclusion

The record prices being paid by suppliers and deficits in gas supply across the world have stoked fears that the energy crisis will get worse. It comes at a time when households are already facing rising bills, while some energy-intensive industries have started to slow production. This has started to dent optimism around the post-pandemic economic recovery.

Historically, UK governments have trusted market mechanisms to deliver UK gas security. However, consumers are having to pay the cost of such an approach. The price cap has meant the UK’s gas bills have until now been typically lower than the EU average. However, the rise in prices comes on top of other economic problems such as labour shortages and increasing food prices, adding up to an unwelcome rise in the cost of living.

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UK government/Ofgem

Questions

  1. Using a supply and demand diagram, illustrate what has happened in the energy market over the past year.
  2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of government intervention in a free market?
  3. Explain why it is necessary for the regulator to intervene in the energy market.
  4. Using the concept of maximum pricing, illustrate how the price cap works.