‘We can’t pay what we don’t have’: Rotherham shivers at ‘terrifying’ energy price hikes

South Yorkshire town is on cost of living crisis front line – and many residents fear the worst, writes Colin Drury

(Alamy)

On a day so glorious that the fountains in Rotherham town centre were filled with splashing children, it was strange, said one mother, Rebecca Hawthorne, to be preoccupied with winter. But, still, she couldn’t stop thinking about what was to come.

“You work your arse off and at the end of the month, you’re paying so much [on essentials], you still have less money than you started with,” the 42-year-old postal worker said. “We have two young children. What do we tell them? No, you can’t have the heating on?”

The average household energy bill will hit £3,549 a year from 1 October after regulator Ofgem announced an 80 per cent price cap increase on cap on Friday.