The energy market needs urgent reform as millions of households face significant price rises in the near future, MPs have warned.
The Government needs to undertake a "fundamental rethink" of its fuel poverty policy, a report from the business and enterprise select committee concluded.
It said rising gas and electricity prices are inevitably leaving more households struggling to pay their bills.
The committee said it had found no evidence of collusion between the "big six" energy companies - British Gas, E.On, Scottish Power, Scottish & Southern, EDF, and npower.
But it said there were "very real problems" with the market.
Committee chairman Peter Luff said: "Just because we have found no evidence of collusion does not mean we have given the big six energy companies a clean bill of health - far from it.
"Some of these are strategic issues such as the functioning of wholesale markets, while others are more specific concerns, for example, how suppliers conduct their doorstep sales to encourage switching."
The report predicts that domestic gas and electricity bills "will rise significantly in the near future, over and above the increases already announced this year".
But the committee raised concerns that fuel poverty programmes had failed to help most of those who were struggling.
The report also warned that the competitiveness of the UK economy and thousands of manufacturing jobs were at risk, if industrial consumers were forced to continue paying prices above European levels.
The Government had not responded quickly enough to the UK's increasing dependence on gas imports by encouraging investment in storage, the committee said, adding: "This is now an issue of national importance."
It also called on watchdog Ofgem to introduce price controls if suppliers did not narrow the gap between direct debit tariffs and standard credit and prepayment meters.
Source:http://uk.biz.yahoo.com/28072008/140/bills-rise-significantly.html
