The words on your bill, in normal language.
Every industry has jargon that keeps outsiders out. Here is the lot, in the plainest English we can manage.
Every term, explained
Standing charge
A fixed daily fee on your energy bill that you pay whether or not you use any energy. About 55p a day for electricity, so roughly £200 a year before you switch anything on.
Unit rate
What you pay for each unit of energy you actually use, measured in pence per kWh. About 26p for electricity and 8p for gas.
kWh
A kilowatt hour, the unit energy is sold in. A typical household uses about 2,500 of them of electricity a year and 9,500 of gas.
Price cap
Ofgem's limit on the standing charge and the unit rate for anyone on a default tariff. It does not cap your bill. Use more, pay more.
Typical consumption
The amount of energy Ofgem assumes an average household uses, so it can quote the cap as a yearly figure. It is an illustration, not a maximum, and a big household will always be above it.
Economy 7
A meter that charges a cheaper rate for about seven hours overnight and a dearer rate the rest of the time.
Band D
The middle council tax band, used as the reference point. Every other band is a fixed fraction of it, so if you know your council's Band D you can work out any band.
Precept
An extra amount added to your council tax bill by another body, such as the police, the fire service, a parish council, or the adult social care precept your council adds for care services.
Section 13 notice
The formal letter an English landlord must send to raise the rent on an assured tenancy. It has to give at least two months' notice and use Form 4A.
Section 21
The old no fault eviction notice that let a landlord in England end a tenancy without giving a reason. Abolished on 1 May 2026.
Periodic tenancy
A tenancy that rolls on month to month with no end date. Since May 2026 every private tenancy in England is one, which means the landlord can no longer wait for a fixed term to run out.
Assured tenancy
The standard kind of private tenancy in England. If you rent from a private landlord and moved in after 1989, this is almost certainly what you have.
Local Housing Allowance
The maximum housing benefit or Universal Credit housing element for private renters in your area. Frozen at January 2024 levels, so it falls further behind actual rents every month.
Broad rental market area
The area used to set your Local Housing Allowance rate. It is usually wider than your town, which is why the allowance can look nothing like local rents.
Prepayment certificate
A season ticket for NHS prescriptions in England. £32.05 for three months or £114.50 for twelve, covering as many items as you need.
Regulated fares
The roughly 45% of rail fares the government controls, mainly season tickets and commuter journeys. The rest are set by the train companies.
Social tariff
A cheaper deal for people on certain benefits. They exist for broadband, mobile and water, they are not advertised, and most eligible people have never heard of them.
30 price changes logged. Every one had a date you could have known in advance.
Tell us which bills you care about and we will email you when one of them changes, with the figure, the date it starts and a link to the regulator that set it. Free, no account, one click to stop.
Email alerts are not running yet. We would rather say that than take your address and send you nothing. Until they are, the change log carries every dated change the day we find it, and you can bookmark it or follow it in a reader.