Unchecked capitalism as a result of UK government policy for a decade....
International problem primarily caused by *GLOBAL* cartels like OPEC+
...Who were caught out by demand dropping massively during COVID causing the prices of some fuels to collapse (particularly for petroleum) so they reacted, as expected, by vastly cutting back the supply.
Go forward and demand picks up and so does the price and they have no incentive to extract fossil fuels quicker and pay for the investment and wages to do so when they can just charge more for what they are already extracting in their cartels.
OPEC+ countries control 90% odd of proven oil reserves.
The only 'fault' of the UK govement in this regard is going along with the Green agenda for renewables, which has put up domestic energy bills a lot and not giving the go ahead for more domestic fracking.
Something which has been very unpopular with many of the very same people now moaning about paying nearly £2 a litre for petrol with gas and electric prices also soaring.
Oh also Russia invading the Ukraine hasn't helped with Russia being an OPEC+ member.
And for the last time it capitalism doesn't require cartels artificially setting prices that don't reflect their real world costs which is more akin to socialism where a goverment sets prices for things that don't reflect the underlying inputs to provide said things!
A properly functioning capitalist system would break up such monopolies.
And bear in mind that a lot of OPEC members are state run organisations or orgs with heavy state involvement!
Conversely you can't have a properly functioning socialist system as they lack markets, which are the only reliable way of turning the massive amout of information out there into prices for goods and services that reflect the inputs to provide then vs the demand for said goods and services.