A MAJOR energy supplier has revealed to its 5.2million customers the exact date they must take a meter reading or they could face higher bills.
Households across the country have just a day left to submit their figures or they could find themselves out of pocket.
EDF has advised its 5.2m customers to submit their meter readings before the end of June 30Credit: Getty
EDF customers have until the end of June 30, or Meter Reading Day, to submit their usage.
However, customers will also be able to back date their meter reads at any time up to and including July 9.
Customers will be able to leave their meter readings via the EDF App, or online via their MyAccount.
Readings can also be submitted via telephone, email or by text and WhatsApp.
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EDF’s Customer Support Fund, which now totals more than £40million, is available to vulnerable customers experiencing hardship.
It provides the opportunity to have their debt cleared as part of EDF’s “fresh start” initiative, with eligible customers receiving an average of £1,250.
The company encourages any customer who is struggling with their energy bill to get in touch so any support they might be eligible for can be identified.
It’s important to submit any readings by June 30 as the average price of an energy bill is due to fall by £122 a year on 1 July, when the change officially takes place.
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The energy regulator Ofgem confirmed the new price cap last month, and it comes into effect on Monday.
Standing charges continue to rise DESPITE gas and electricity costs falling - what it means for you and how to soften the blow
But bear in mind that the energy price cap changes every three months so there is a possibility your monthly bill could rise again.
It is important that you take a reading every three months when the price cap changes take place to make sure you are not being overcharged.
In the latest MoneySavingExpert newsletter, Martin Lewis encouraged households to take a meter reading before midnight on June 30.
The team wrote: "With monthly Direct Debit, firms estimate your usage so the cost can be evened out over the year.
"With prices dropping right now, unless you've a working smart meter, firms will estimate how much your current usage is during the higher rate time, and how much is afterwards.”
The deadline you have to submit a reading varies from supplier to supplier.
Some companies will allow you to backdate the reading if you miss the exact date it was meant to be submitted.
But that may not always be the case so it is worth speaking to the customer service team at your energy supplier to double check.
If you have a smart meter, you don’t need to take a reading, as this is sent to your supplier automatically.
How do I calculate my energy bill?
BELOW we reveal how you can calculate your own energy bill.
To calculate how much you pay for your energy bill, you must find out your unit rate for gas and electricity and the standing charge for each fuel type.
The unit rate will usually be shown on your bill in p/kWh.The standing charge is a daily charge that is paid 365 days of the year - irrespective of whether or not you use any gas or electricity.
You will then need to note down your own annual energy usage from a previous bill.
Once you have these details, you can work out your gas and electricity costs separately.
Multiply your usage in kWh by the unit rate cost in p/kWh for the corresponding fuel type - this will give you your usage costs.
You'll then need to multiply each standing charge by 365 and add this figure to the totals for your usage - this will then give you your annual costs.
Divide this figure by 12, and you'll be able to determine how much you should expect to pay each month from April 1.
But it is worth making sure that your meter is sending readings correctly, as sometimes smart meters can have issues.
Take a photo of your meter on July 1, and compare it to what is showing when you log into your energy account.
It is worth keeping the photo as you can submit it to your provider later if there are any disputes.
An updated meter reading helps stop your supplier from determining bill prices that aren't accurate to your usage.
If you don't have a smart meter, your energy supplier will usually require regular readings from your gas and electricity meters to calculate your bill.
Customers who don't send their suppliers regular readings will have their bills calculated by estimated usage, and they will likely pay more - so it is always worth knowing how to send the numbers.
Once you've taken a reading, you should be able to submit it in a number of ways, including text message or online.
You might also be able to submit it online or through your supplier's app.
It's best to check with your supplier to see your options.
It's always worth taking a picture of your meter reading when you submit it to your supplier - just in case you need it as evidence in a future dispute.
The way you take a meter reading depends on the type of meter you have - we've explained how to take a reading depending on your meter type.
Electricity meters
If you have a digital electricity meter, you will just see a row of six numbers - five in black and one in red.
Take down the five numbers in black and ignore the red number.
If you are on an Economy 7 or 10 tariff which gives you cheaper electricity at night - you will have two rows of numbers, so take both readings down.
If you have a traditional dial meter you will need to read the first five dials from left to right ignoring any red ones.
If the pointer is between two numbers, write down the lower figures and if it is between nine and zero write down the number nine.
What to do if you're struggling
THERE are a number of different ways to get help paying your energy bills if you're struggling to get by.
If you fall into debt, you can always approach your supplier to see if they can put you on a repayment plan before putting you on a prepayment meter.
This involves paying off what you owe in instalments over a set period.
If your supplier offers you a repayment plan you don't think you can afford, speak to them again to see if you can negotiate a better deal.
But eligibility criteria varies depending on the supplier and the amount you can get depends on your financial circumstances.
For example, British Gas or Scottish Gas customers struggling to pay their energy bills can get grants worth up to £1,500.
British Gas also offers help via its British Gas Energy Trust and Individuals Family Fund.
You don't need to be a British Gas customer to apply for the second fund.
EDF, E.ON, Octopus Energy and Scottish Power all offer grants to struggling customers too.
Thousands of vulnerable households are missing out on extra help and protections by not signing up to the Priority Services Register (PSR).
The service helps support vulnerable households, such as those who are elderly or ill, and some of the perks include being given advance warning of blackouts, free gas safety checks and extra support if you're struggling.
Get in touch with your energy firm to see if you can apply.
If the dial is directly over a number, write down that number and underline it.
If you’ve underlined a number, check the next dial to the right.
If the pointer on that dial is between 9 and 0, reduce the number you’ve underlined by 1.
For example, if you originally wrote down 5, change it to 4.
Gas meters
If you have a digital metric meter showing five numbers and then a decimal place, you only need to write down the first five numbers from left to right.
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If you have a digital imperial meter your meter will read four black numbers and two red numbers - note down the four black numbers only.
If you have a dial gas meter, follow the same steps as those for those with a dial electricity meter, but ignore underlining any figures.
Customers will also be able to back date their meter reads at any time up to and including July 9Credit: Alamy
Britain's fourth-biggest household energy supplier is lining up bankers to explore options including bringing in a new investor or a sale, 15 years after it launched in a bid to challenge the industry's oligopoly.
Sky News has learnt that OVO Group, which was founded by Stephen Fitzpatrick, is close to hiring Rothschild to assist with a strategic review of the business.
City sources said this weekend that a range of possibilities would be considered during the process, which is expected to take several months.
These are likely to include a refinancing - with talks already underway about OVO's existing borrowings - as well as issuing new shares to prospective investors, or a partial or full sale by some of the company's shareholders.
An outright sale of the business is considered by insiders to be unlikely at this point, but is expected to be explored as part of the strategic review.
OVO, which has about four million customers, sits behind Centrica, the owner of British Gas, Octopus Energy and E.ON Next in the rankings of Britain's leading gas and electricity suppliers, according to market share data provided by Ofgem, the industry regulator.
Under Mr Fitzpatrick, who launched OVO in 2009, the company positioned itself as a challenger brand offering superior service to the industry's established players.
OVO's transformational moment came in 2020, when it bought the retail supply arm of SSE, transforming it overnight into one of Britain's leading energy companies.
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Its growth has not been without difficulties, with insiders referring to a challenged relationship with Ofgem and a torrent of customer complaints about overcharging.
Image:Stephen Fitzpatrick launched OVO in 2009. Pic: OVO
In recent months, OVO's shareholders have reshaped its leadership team, bringing in the former J Sainsbury chief executive Justin King as its chairman.
In May, Mr King recruited David Buttress, the former Just Eat boss who was briefly Boris Johnson's cost-of-living tsar, as the energy group's new chief executive.
Mr Buttress replaced Raman Bhatia, who left to join Starling Bank.
He is expected to focus on sharpening the company's customer service performance as well as exploring ways to further diversify its products and services.
Key to OVO's valuation will be the growth of its technology platform, Kaluza, which was set up to license its software to other energy suppliers, and provides customers with smart electric vehicle charging and heat pumps.
OVO recently announced that AGL Energy, one of Australia's biggest energy suppliers, had bought a 20% stake in Kaluza at a $500m (£395m) valuation.
Kaluza is understood to be exploring further expansion opportunities in Europe, Japan and the US.
OVO has also entered the electric vehicle car charging sector under the brand Charge Anywhere, adding 34,000 public charging points across the UK.
In 2022, OVO Group made an unadjusted loss of £1.3bn, which it blamed on a decline in the value of energy it had bought in advance to meet future supply commitments.
It said this had "no cash impact" in a corporate filing, and that this value would rise as customers used the energy it had bought.
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Last summer, the company announced a £200m secondary share sale which saw existing investors Mayfair Equity Partners and Morgan Stanley Investment Management increasing their stakes in the company.
Other investors include Mitsubishi Corporation, the Japanese conglomerate.
Mayfair is thought to hold a stake of over 30%, while Mitsubishi owns approximately 20%.
Mr Fitzpatrick also remains a significant shareholder.
This weekend, it was unclear which of OVO's investors might seek a disposal of their interests, although insiders acknowledged that a sizeable proportion of the company's shares could end up changing hands.
Like its rivals, OVO has been contending with the impact of the industry price cap after a period of enormous price spikes which sent customers' bills soaring.
Last month, Ofgem said the cap would fall in the quarter from July to September by the annualised equivalent of £122, to £1568.
Other big players in the sector include EDF and Scottish Power, which is owned by Spain's Iberdrola.
In recent months, Octopus Energy, run by Greg Jackson, has crystallised a valuation of over £7bn by selling stakes to a number of new investors.
Centrica has a market valuation on the London Stock Exchange of £7.3bn.
OVO, whose valuation in any major transaction was unclear this weekend, declined to comment.
The chief executive of Boots, Britain's biggest high street pharmacy chain, is quitting after its owner's plans for a £5bn sale or stock market listing stalled.
Sky News has learnt that Sebastian James, who has run Boots since 2018, will leave the company in November.
City sources said this weekend that he had accepted a new role in the healthcare industry.
His exit comes soon after it emerged that New York-listed Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), the British retailer's owner, had decided for the second time in two years against pursuing a sale or stock market flotation of the chain.
An announcement about Mr James's departure is expected in the coming days.
WBA is not yet thought to have lined up a successor.
Mr James, who previously ran the electricals retailer Dixons (now named Currys), recently endorsed Sir Keir Starmer - a notable move because of his long friendship with Lord Cameron, the foreign secretary.
His departure from Boots will come during the Nottingham-based company's 175th year.
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Boots employs about 52,000 people and trades from roughly 1,900 stores.
Image:Boots has around 1,900 stores. Pic: iStock
Its recent trading performance has been strong, with WBA this week saying that like-for-like sales at Boots during the quarter to the end of May rose by 6% and 5.8% across its retail and pharmacy operations respectively.
An insider said Mr James had overseen a successful turnaround, with market share having grown for 13 successive quarters.
It has been a rare bright spot for WBA, which has had a torrid time and has seen its shares slump.
A WBA spokesperson said this week: "As Walgreens Boots Alliance continues a strategic review of the Company's assets, we took a critical look at Boots.
"While we believe there is significant interest in this business at the right time, Boots' growth, strategic strength and cashflow remain key contributors to Walgreens Boots Alliance.
"We are committed to continuing to invest in Boots UK and to find innovative ways for this business to fulfill its potential."
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During a previous auction in 2022, only one bidder - a consortium of Apollo Global Management and Reliance Industries - tabling a formal offer worth about £5.5bn.
However, growing concerns about the global economy had triggered severe doubts among large banks which help finance leveraged buyouts, with Boots among the biggest such deals in Europe.
Among the other challenges facing prospective acquirers at the time was finding an adequate solution for Boots' £8bn pension scheme - one of the largest private retirement funds in the UK.
This issue has now been resolved through an insurance deal struck with Legal & General.
Like many retailers, Boots had a turbulent pandemic, announcing 4,000 job cuts in 2020 as a consequence of a restructuring of its Nottingham head office and store management teams.
Shortly before the COVID pandemic, Boots earmarked about 200 of its UK stores for closure, a reflection of changing shopping habits.
Boots' heritage dates back to John Boot opening a herbal remedies store in Nottingham in 1849.
It opened its 1000th UK store in 1933.
In 2006, Boots merged with Alliance Unichem, a drug wholesaler, with the buyout firm KKR acquiring the combined group in an £11bn deal the following year.
In 2012, Walgreens acquired a 45% stake in Alliance Boots, completing its buyout of the business two years later.
Boots declined to comment on Mr James's exit on Saturday.
Nationwide, HSBC, Barclays and Virgin Money customers have been affected by problems with banking services, leaving some unable to send and receive money.
The issues could affect those on what is commonly pay day for many across the country, with some reporting they have not received their salary.
HSBC UK said there had been a "separate payments issue affecting multiple banks", and Nationwide blamed a "third-party payments issue".
Barclays also alerted customers, while Virgin Money said access to its app has been fully restored after issues in the morning - but there is a backlog of payments to process.
"We're really sorry that some customers are having issues accessing personal online and mobile banking," HSBC UK said on its website.
"Our IT teams are working hard to get these services back to normal. You can still authorise online card purchases via SMS."
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Virgin Money said on X "like other banks" it is "working hard to process the backlog of payments delayed as quickly as possible".
The bank had earlier alerted customers to delays to payments in and out of accounts and asked users not to try to make payments again if they had received an error message.
Barclays, responding to a user on X who said they have not been paid, said it was "aware of this issue" and is doing "everything... to get this resolved as quickly as possible".
A Barclays customer said they have "thousands of pounds worth of payments due in" but "no one can pay me".
"Absolutely marvellous at the end of the month and all my bills are due," they added.
Last month, NatWest experienced a four-hour outage affecting its mobile and online banking services.
The economy grew by more than initially estimated in the first three months of 2024 as the UK emerged from recession, revised official figures show.
Between January and March, the economy grew by 0.7% the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Figures released last month initially estimated growth had been 0.6%.
The strength of the economy has been a central battleground in the general election campaign, with growth having been sluggish in recent years.
Most economists, politicians and businesses want to see GDP rising steadily, because it usually means people are spending more, extra jobs are created, more tax is paid to the government and workers get better pay rises.
The original figure for the first quarter of the year was stronger than economists had expected, and growth in the services sector, which includes businesses such as hairdressers, banks, and hospitality, helped to push it higher, the ONS said.
But while services growth was revised upwards, increases in manufacturing were revised down on the back of more data being collected.
Paul Dales, chief UK economist at research company Capital Economics, said the faster growth rise in GDP in early 2024 was "mainly due to upward revisions to consumer spending".
The ONS said there was increased spending on recreation and culture, as well as housing and food, but added household disposable incomes had continued to rise in early 2024 as workers secured wage increases.
Mr Dales said this meant household saving rates rose from 10.2% at the end of last year to 11.1%, which was the highest rate since mid 2021 when savings were boosted during the Covid pandemic.
He added the new figure suggested "whoever is Prime Minister this time next week may benefit from the economic recovery being a bit stronger".
"It’s the tiniest sliver of improvement but when it comes to UK GDP growth, every little really does help," said Danni Hewson, AJ Bell head of financial analysis.
"Growth has been front and centre of party manifestos, even if they differ on the details of how that growth can be achieved. A growing economy creates wealth, puts more money in people’s pockets and ups the amount of tax delivered to the Treasury’s depleted coffers."
While the UK has emerged from the economic recession it entered in the final months of 2023, many households may not be feeling better off, with budgets having been stretched by rising prices in recent times.
Interest rates are currently at their highest for 16 years at 5.25%, meaning people are paying more to borrow money for things such as mortgages and loans, although savers have also received better returns.
The latest figures on the economy show it failed to grow in April after particularly wet weather put off shoppers and slowed down construction.
The Bank of England, which sets interest rates, has opened the door to cutting them in August in what would be the first drop in borrowing costs for more than four years.
But many mortgage holders have already refinanced at higher costs, and about three million more households set to see their repayments rise in the next two years as fixed-rate deals come to an end.
Sophie Lund-Yates, lead equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said while "hotter-than-expected growth doesn’t help those looking for a faster route to cutting interest rates, it does help to boost overall optimism".
"The deep-seated productivity problems in the UK are overall a bigger concern than the immediate interest rate outlook," she added.
The UK's exit from recession during the first three months of the year was stronger than initial figures suggested, according to official data.
In an update on its first growth estimate, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.7% between January and March.
It had originally said on 10 May that output was 0.6% up on the previous three months - a positive figure that brought to an end the shallow recession that struck during the second half of 2023.
Then, the effects of Bank of England interest rate rises to combat inflation were widely blamed by economists for choking off demand.
All the growth during the January-March period was attributable to the services sector, which accounts for almost 80% of the economy.
We have since learned there was zero growth recorded by the ONS for the month of April, with poor weather hitting construction and high streets.
The data is the last from the ONS before the country goes to the polls on 4 July - with the economy, and personal finances especially, among the topics high on voters' minds following the effects of the COVID pandemic and energy-driven cost of living crisis.
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2:34
Public service cuts under both Labour and Tories - thinktank
The timing of the general election has coincided with fierce debate over whether the Bank should now be cutting interest rates, allowing for an easing in borrowing costs.
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3:28
May: 'Path is downwards' on interest rates
Despite this gap in favour of consumers, with wage growth outpacing inflation since June last year, the effects of the crises since 2020 have taken their toll, according to campaigners on living standards.
The Resolution Foundation said on Friday real household disposable incomes were lower in early 2024 than they were back in late 2019.
It said growth so far in this parliament was weaker than all but two parliaments since 1910, despite growth over the past year of 2.4%.
The thinktank declared average incomes were £120 a year lower per person over the period since the last election.
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2:04
'We don't know if we're voting for tax rises or spending cuts'
In its financial stability report on Thursday, there was a further nod to pressures ahead as it warned there were still three million mortgage holders yet to feel the pain of higher interest rates in their repayments.
As things stand, financial markets and economists see August or September as the likely months for the first rate cut, barring any new shocks.
For many, the prospect of action in June was largely eradicated by the election - the Bank anxious to avoid any questions over its independence.
The UK's exit from recession during the first three months of the year was stronger than initial figures suggested, according to official data.
In an update on its first growth estimate, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said gross domestic product (GDP) rose by 0.7% between January and March.
It had originally said on 10 May that output was 0.6% up on the previous three months - a positive figure that brought to an end the shallow recession that struck during the second half of 2023.
Then, the effects of Bank of England interest rate rises to combat inflation were widely blamed by economists for choking of demand.
All the growth during the January-March period was attributable to the services sector, which accounts for almost 80% of the economy.
We have since learned that there was zero growth recorded by the ONS for the month of April, with poor weather hitting construction and high streets.
The data is the last from the ONS before the country goes to the polls on 4 July - with the economy, and personal finances especially, among the topics high on voters' minds following the effects of the COVID pandemic and energy-driven cost of living crisis.
The timing of the general election has coincided with fierce debate over whether the Bank should now be cutting interest rates, allowing for an easing in borrowing costs.
Despite this gap in favour of consumers, with wage growth outpacing inflation since June last year, the effects of the crises since 2020 have taken their toll, according to campaigners on living standards.
The Resolution Foundation said on Friday that real household disposable incomes were lower in early 2024 than they were back in late 2019.
It said that growth so far in this parliament was weaker than all but two parliaments since 1910, despite growth over the past year of 2.4%.
The thinktank declared that average incomes were £120 a year lower per person over the period since the last election.
Figures such as this get to the heart of the election campaign but also give ammunition to critics of the Bank of England who argue that interest rates should come down.
As things stand, financial markets and economists see August or September as the likely months for the first rate cut, barring any new shocks.
The Bank estimated last week that the economy would expand by 0.5% in the April-to-June period, despite the lag reported for April itself.
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