Lancashire households face postcode divide in energy costs - find out what you will be paying this year

A postcode divide in household energy costs exists across Lancashire.

A report reveals residents in Ribble Valley pay the second highest energy cost at 14.67p per kWh.

It has the lowest estimated mains-gas connection rate in Lancashire, at 85.6 per cent, and the highest modelled annual bill in the county at £2,102.80.

Preston ranks third at 14.65p per kWh, with an estimated 91.3 per cent of homes connected to mains gas. Its modelled annual household bill is £2,010.85.

Meanwhile, Pendle is the cheapest, according to new analysis of household energy costs across Great Britain.

Lancaster tops the charts with the highest bills at 14.69p per kWh, compared with 13.65p per kWh in Pendle – a difference of around 7.6 per cent.

However, Lancashire performs comparatively well nationally. Every local authority in the county sits in the cheaper half of the ranking of all 350 local authorities in Great Britain.

Pendle is the seventh-cheapest area in Great Britain for the effective price of household energy, while neighbouring Rossendale is the tenth-cheapest nationally.

The research by Alan Boswell Group combined the latest available household energy-consumption figures with Ofgem’s regional price-cap rates for October to December 2026.

The analysis ranks areas according to the blended effective price per kWh – the modelled annual cost of electricity, gas and standing charges divided by the amount of household energy used.

This means the ranking is designed to show how expensive energy itself is locally, rather than simply ranking areas by the size of the average annual bill, which can also be heavily affected by property size and consumption.

Under the October cap, electricity costs an average 26.32p per kWh, compared with 7.97p for gas, making access to mains gas one of the factors influencing an area’s effective energy price.

Across Lancashire, estimated mains-gas connection ranges from 85.6 per cent in Ribble Valley to 97.9 per cent in Hyndburn.

Preston ranks third at 14.65p per kWh, with an estimated 91.3 per cent of homes connected to mains gas. Its modelled annual household bill is £2,010.85.

West Lancashire follows at 14.58p per kWh. An estimated 90.5 per cent of homes are connected to the gas network, while the modelled annual bill is £2,063.07.

Blackpool ranks fifth at 14.45p per kWh, despite a comparatively high estimated mains-gas connection rate of 94.7 per cent. Its modelled annual household bill is £1,914.91.

Wyre comes sixth, with an effective energy price of 14.43p per kWh. Around 92.8 per cent of homes are estimated to be connected to mains gas and the modelled annual bill stands at £1,940.88.

South Ribble ranks seventh at 14.33p per kWh and has one of Lancashire’s highest estimated gas-connection rates, at 96.6 per cent. Its modelled annual household bill is £1,948.72.

Fylde is eighth at 14.22p per kWh, with an estimated 89.8 per cent of homes connected to mains gas. Its modelled annual bill is £1,993.58.

Chorley comes ninth at 14.10p per kWh. An estimated 95.4 per cent of homes are connected to mains gas and its modelled annual bill is £1,938.56.

Ribble Valley has Lancashire’s highest modelled annual bill, at £2,102.80, despite ranking second rather than first for effective price per kWh.

Heath Alexander-Bew, Personal Lines Director at Alan Boswell Group, said: “If you are on the gas grid, the cheapest thing you own is the gas main outside your house, and most people never think about it.

“Off the grid, every degree of heat costs you more than three times what someone two villages over is paying, and no amount of switching supplier changes that arithmetic.

“A unit of heat you stop losing is worth roughly three times more in a house heated by electricity than in a house on gas, so the places paying the most per unit are the places where the work pays for itself quickest.

“Start with the loft and the draughts, then the walls, and get the fabric quoted before anyone talks you into replacing the heating system.”