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Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Ronevich.

The briefing room is the mind space in the metaverse,

where a big subject becomes clear in less than half an hour

with the assistance of the top experts.

This week, how bad are things getting for poorer Britons?

And what could be done to help?

It's been a time of bad news.

We've heard that energy bills are likely to be thousands of pounds higher than was expected just a short time ago.

The Bank of England has increased interest rates again and warned of the twin threat of inflation and a recession. So, most people will be affected and many will be in real

trouble. What could or should government and others do to help? Step into the briefing room

and together we'll find out.

First, let's try and quantify how much of a problem people are having now and are likely to have going into the winter.

Joining me in the briefing room is Consumer Affairs journalist and Moneybox Live presenter, Felicity

Hannah.

Felicity Hannah, what's the latest estimate of what's going to happen to energy prices in the

autumn? At the moment, the cap is just short of £2,000. And the current prediction by the

energy analyst's Cornwall Insight is that it could rise by 77%. So to give you the staggering number

in full, Cornwall Insight recons the average annual energy bill is going to reach £3,582 in the autumn.

And it thinks that by January, when it gets adjusted again, we'll be looking at a typical annual bill of more than £4,200.

These are just staggering numbers.

Now, what can we say about who is affected most by this? I think everybody

...