ENERGY supplier SSE is to reduce household gas prices by 4.1 per cent on April 30 before extending its energy price freeze until at least July 2016.

The move is the latest cut by one of the UK's Big Six energy firms, although SSE's reduction will take effect much later than the company's rivals, with British Gas due to cut its gas tariffs by 5% from February 27.

In March, SSE pledged to freeze prices until January 2016 after putting up gas and electricity bills by 8.2% in the previous autumn. The UK's second biggest supplier said today it has extended this guarantee, meaning its gas and electricity prices will not go up before July 2016 at the earliest.

The company, which has 8.7 million electricity and gas accounts, said the price cut will save a typical household customer £28 a year.

The planned reduction follows a sharp drop in wholesale energy costs, although SSE points out that this factor now makes up less than half of the average household energy bill.
 
It said: ''There are significant other costs within energy bills, including those relating to government-sponsored environmental and social policies and the roll-out of smart meters.
 
''SSE believes that such policies should be funded in a more progressive way related to people's ability to pay and believes that the GB-wide smart meter roll-out should be subject to review to identify what can be done to minimise its costs and optimise its benefits to all energy consumers in GB.''