Over 300,000 households in arrears on electricity bills
A total of 301,000 households were in arrears on their electricity bills at the end of May.
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Another 175,000 domestic gas customers and over 27,000 small firms were behind on their bills.
Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan says recent prices increases by providers need to be addressed: "We have been arguing for a permanent solution for years now, but they will still need those one-off supports until that starts to take effect.
She said what they can do is reform the network charges that everybody pays on their bill. "Last month the regulator announced they would increase the charge for households and small businesses," she said.
In a post on Facebook the MEP said: "The government has no interest in cutting your energy bills.
"They're happy to make you pay more, while cutting energy costs for data centres.
"Tackling energy costs to bring down the cost of living must be a priority for FF & FG in the new budget.
"300,000 people can't afford for the government to keep sitting on their hands about this."
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These falls will support house price growth, with Oxford Economics expecting house prices to hit 3.6 per cent year-on-year growth in the third quarter of the year, and then 2.5 per cent in the final quarter. Edward Allenby from Oxford Economics said: 'We expect house prices to grow, but that growth is expected to soften over the next year. That is because household income growth is likely to slow, whether that is through higher inflation, tighter fiscal policy, frozen thresholds and potentially higher taxes.' In the first quarter of 2025 year-on-year house price growth was 5.5 per cent. An oversupply of homes could also cause price growth to slow. Zoopla reported this week that there were about 553,000 homes up for sale, a record high. • House price boom? Inflation means all is not as it seems Richard Donnell from Zoopla said: 'Price growth is being stunted by the high supply of homes for sale, with 12 per cent more properties on the market than this time last year. 'This supports a 'buyers' market' where there's plenty of choice and offers can be competitive, limiting house price increases.' For homeowners coming to the end of their mortgage term, it looks like a good time to shop around, with significant rate drops for those who want to switch lenders. Gettins said: 'In the last 6 to 12 months the gaps between rates for first-time buyers and those remortgaging have narrowed. Banks are becoming more competitive for those remortgaging as they are for movers, and that's a positive sign for anyone whose deal is maturing.' Analysis by L&C has found that the lowest remortgage rate for a two-year fix is 3.79 per cent, a fall of 0.17 percentage points since the start of May. This has nearly matched the rate for buyers, with the lowest two-year fixed mortgage rate at 3.76 per cent, which is 0.22 percentage points lower than the May equivalent. Experts have said that the high number of people remortgaging is driven by the better rates but also a 'perfect storm' of people coming off their two and five-year mortgages at the same time. Chris Sykes from the mortgage broker MSP Financial Solutions said: 'There have been a series of events that have led to a big remortgage year. 'You probably fixed at five years in Covid before rates rose, and then those getting mortgages two years ago when rates went really high after the Truss budget would have fixed for two years hoping rates would come down.'
