Energy prices by region: methodology

The rates

Ofgem sets the price cap for each of the 14 electricity regions and publishes the unit rates and standing charges for each on its unit rates page, by payment method. We copy the direct debit, prepayment and multi-rate tables each quarter, and check them against the Great Britain averages Ofgem prints with them; a test fails if the two disagree. Last checked 23 October 2026.

Gas rates include 5% VAT. Electricity is zero-rated for VAT from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027, so electricity rates over that period carry none.

Typical bills

A typical bill uses Ofgem’s typical domestic consumption values, revised on 1 July 2026: low, medium and high are 1,600, 2,500 and 3,800 kWh of electricity and 6,000, 9,500 and 14,000 kWh of gas a year. The household descriptions beside them are the ones Ofgem uses on its average use page. A year’s cost is the use times the unit rate, plus 365 days of standing charge, at one quarter’s rates; real bills move as the cap changes each quarter.

Regions

The regions are the electricity distribution network licence areas. Each has a number, 10 to 23, which is also the first two digits of the MPAN core on an electricity bill:

Gas regions are drawn differently, but Ofgem publishes gas cap rates against the same 14 electricity regions, so we do too.

Matching councils to regions

Region boundaries follow the old electricity board areas, not councils, so some councils are split. For England and Wales we take the official licence area boundaries from NESO and the population-weighted centre of every 2021 Lower Layer Super Output Area from the ONS. Each area holds roughly 1,500 people, so counting how many of a council’s areas fall in each region gives the share of its homes there. Shares under 3% are left out.

The ONS doesn’t publish the same centres for Scotland, so Scottish councils are placed by their centre and checked against the postcodes of their main towns. Three straddle the line between North and South Scotland, Stirling, Argyll and Bute and North Ayrshire, and their pages say which parts are where rather than give a share we didn’t measure.

Where a council is split, the cost on its home energy use page blends the regions’ rates by those shares. The postcode finder names the council’s regions; for a split council, the MPAN on your bill settles it.

Licence

Boundary data from NESO under the NESO Open Data Licence. ONS geography contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right, and public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.