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Higher bills here to stay, warn energy bosses - live updates
Gas and electricity bills are unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels, according to the boss of a Norwegian energy giant.
Anders Opedal, chief executive of Equinor, said the transition away from fossil fuels to more sustainable sources of energy will mean costs remain high.
Mr Opedal also said that windfall taxes on gas and energy companies were affecting investment in the UK.
Meanwhile, the former boss of BP has said energy costs will stay high for the next decade because of massive underinvestment in oil and gas in the wake of new climate change targets.
Writing in the Telegraph, Tony Hayward said people should "not be fooled" by a recent decline in wholesale oil and gas prices, warning: "High energy costs are going to be a feature of the next decade.
In October, the energy price cap surged to £3,549 following months of high prices, up from £1,977 previously, although household bills have been eased by the Government's £2,500 energy price guarantee, which rises to £3,000 from April.
Speaking about the switch to renewables, Mr Opedal told the BBC: "This will require a lot of investment and these investments need to be paid for, so I would assume that the energy bills may be slightly higher than in the past but not as volatile and high we have today."
Read the latest updates below.
Markets slightly higher to start week
The export-oriented FTSE 100 has edged higher with banks and life insurance companies among the top gainers.
Investors are looking ahead to a week lined up with key domestic economic data including inflation.
The blue-chip FTSE 100 has risen 0.2pc and the mid-cap FTSE 250 is flat. Both are looking to extend gains to a fourth straight session.
Banks and the FTSE 350 life insurance sector added 0.4pc and 0.6pc, respectively.
Among individual stocks, Marks & Spencer rose 1.4pc after revealing plans to open 20 new stores creating 3,400 jobs throughout Britain.
Meanwhile, data by property website Rightmove showed asking prices for homes rose for the first time in two months as the housing market calmed after the turmoil triggered by former prime minister Liz Truss's "mini-budget".
Inflation and retail sales will be among other data points that investors will be watching this week for clues on how the economy fared towards the end of the previous year.
Gas prices continue to fall despite cold snap
European natural gas priced have declined as ample supplies are likely to help avoid any disruptions during a period of below-normal temperatures this week.
Benchmark futures fell as much as 3.2pc, taking the decline since the start of the year to about 17pc.
The cold snap will last until the end of the week but it will not be strong enough to dent gas inventories that have been barely touched over the last month amid mild weather and strong liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports.
There is optimism that Europe will ride out this winter without extreme price spikes, rationing and blackouts.
Gas markets are calming around the world, helped by full stockpiles in China even in the middle of freezing weather that is resulting in companies diverting LNG cargoes to the west. It is likely to keep markets well supplied into the end of the winter.
Renewables are also contributing to less use of gas in electricity in Europe. Britain's wind farms produced a record 21,017 megawatts on Tuesday.
Dutch front-month gas futures, Europe's benchmark, slipped 1.6pc to €63.75 a megawatt-hour.
Global downturn will force an extra 3m people out of work, ILO warns
A global economic downturn will force 3m people out of work, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has said ahead of a gathering of world leaders gather for the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Global employment growth is expected to slow down sharply this year, hit by the economic fallout of the war in Ukraine, high inflation and tighter monetary policy, the ILO has said.
At the same time, the number of unemployed people in the world is expected to rise by 3m to 208m in 2023, while inflation will eat into real wages, the ILO said in a report on global trends.
Job growth will rise 1pc this year compared to 2pc in 2022, which the scarcity of new jobs expected to hit countries at a time when many are still recovering from the economic shock of the global pandemic.
Richard Samans, director of the ILO's Research Department, who coordinated the report, said: "The slowdown in global employment growth means that we don't expect the losses incurred during the Covid-19 crisis to be recovered before 2025."
M&S to open 20 new shops and create 3,400 jobs
Marks & Spencer has announced plans to ramp up its store overhaul with plans to open 20 new shops across the UK in a move that will create 3,400 jobs.
The retailer said that over the next financial year it will open eight full-line stores in shopping centres such as the Bullring in Birmingham and the Trafford Centre in Manchester, as well in as retail parks and high streets across key cities.
It also will open 12 new food halls, including in Stockport, Barnsley and the seaside town of Largs in North Ayrshire, Scotland.
The new openings will bring investment in new stores to £480m, M&S said.
Just Eat to deliver Sainsbury's orders within 30 minutes
Sainsbury's will tap into Just Eat's network of thousands of riders by the end of next month as it starts offering deliveries through the app.
Customers of 175 Sainsbury's shops across the UK will be able to order milk and other products though the Just Eat app, have a rider collect their order and get it delivered within half an hour, Just Eat said.
There will be more than 3,000 products available for delivery, and the companies hope the partnership will expand to other locations before the end of the year.
It is a big addition to Just Eat's growing grocery offering, a category which many takeaway delivery companies have been trying to muscle in on in recent years.
Rivals that focus purely on groceries, such as Turkey's Getir or Germany's Gorillas have become common sights on the streets of London since the pandemic.
Bitcoin price surges to start year
Bitcoin has bolted out of January's starting gates with a climb of more than 28pc, prompting fears that investment is being driven by the "fear of missing out".
The digital token’s advance is the best for the opening month of a year since a 31pc rally in 2020 before the pandemic hit.
The surge has helped to lift the overall value of digital assets past $1trn (£820bn), a level that gave way in November when the FTX exchange imploded, CoinGecko data shows.
Bitcoin lost more than 60pc of its value last year.
Good morning
It is Blue Monday - apparently the most depressing day of the year - so what better time for news that higher energy bills are here to stay?
Anders Opedal, chief executive of Equinor, said that the shift to renewable forms of energy will mean that prices do not fall back to their levels before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Mr Opedal told the BBC there is "a kind of re-wiring of the whole energy system in Europe particularly after the gas from Russia was taken away".
He said huge investment in renewables was needed, including using more hydrogen, which would be costly.
5 things to start your day
1) Three times as many heat pump engineers needed to hit targets, industry warns | Trade group says shortfall of workers deals a 'hammer blow' to rollout ambitions
2) Electric car amibitions will be stifled by fines for missing targets, Jaguar warns | Carmaker says new zero emission mandate could have a 'significant financial impact'
3) Buy now pay later to impact credit scores of millions | Changes at Zilch will see data shared with agencies and could impact buyers' borrowing ability at major banks
4) Wall Street ‘Tiger Cub’ bets against Dr Martens | Northamptonshire-founded bootmaker struggles with slowing sales in the US
5) Walls close in on TikTok as President Biden leads Western crackdown | Concerns about the Chinese video sharing app mount across the West
What happened overnight
Asian shares climbed higher on Monday as investors waited to see whether the Bank of Japan would defend its super-sized stimulus policy at a pivotal meeting this week, while a holiday in US markets made for thin trading.
Japan's Nikkei slipped 1pc to a two-week low amid rumours that the BOJ might hold an emergency meeting on Monday, due to its struggle to defend its new yield ceiling in the face of massive selling.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan edged up 0.5pc, with hopes for a speedy Chinese reopening giving it a gain of 4.2pc last week. China's blue chip index also gained 0.6pc.
EUROSTOXX 50 futures grew 0.6pc and FTSE futures added 0.1pc. Meanwhile, S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq futures were flat after a Wall Street bounce last week.