Price Cap - Just announced

[swifttwist]

From £1971 to £3549. 80% rise. I have no words.

New figures:

Electricity
£0.52 per kWh
Daily standing charge: £0.46

Gas:
£0.15 per kWh
Daily standing charge: £0.28

'Since 2010, retired households have seen their average disposable household income increase in real-terms from £23,959 to £27,704, according to the Office for National Statistics.

This is equivalent to a £3,745 - or 15.6 per cent - increase in available income after taxes.

Meanwhile non-retired households have seen disposable income increase from £29,529 to £32,397, an increase of just £2,868.'

My husband and I are sitting looking at these figures and our mouths are open, we are most definitely NOT enjoying £27,704, nowhere near that figure. We consider ourselves lucky to access under £15k, inclusive Of all the help we receive. This is the position of many.

Don't forget that there are two tiers of pension, i cant remember the date but the state pension changed a few years ago; those entitled to their pension by a set date continued to receive the lower rate those born later were entitled to a greater sum.

We don't whinge about it, we just get on with things, but we are a very long way from well off. The big difference is that we don't have any debt, or the high expenditure that seems to be the norm with young people.

No costs for mobiles, or sky packages. No new clothes. No going out, but we are going on holiday, we are having a wet room installed through a disabled facilities grant. Because of my lack of mobility we need to vacate the property whilst the contractors work. Our other non essential is our dog, a rescue dog that we
Love as a child!

I was talking to my 85 year old dad last night. He is on a fixed rate until next year so reckons his bills wont have increased much and will be receiving £1 k in handouts this winter ( £600 winter fuel payment and £400 cost of living payment payment. Added to this he has just gone onto a water meter and they have reduced his water bill to £12 a month ! I guess he just needs to put this money aside for when he sees a big increase next year.

@Liebig 10:52
That's all that needs to be said, in a nutshell.

This
Does the UK face a gas shortage? The government says the UK's energy bill crisis is due to high global gas prices, not security of supply. However, that could change quite rapidly if Russian gas becomes scarce, as countries that depend heavily on Russian gas will have to compete for alternative supplies.3 Mar 2022

and i will send you another one

@JOFFCV
The price depends on the area in which you live, the cost of electricity in your area, how full or empty, it usually is, what brand and the age of it.
Ring the manufacturers and ask them or ring the place from where it was bought. Look in the manual to see if it's energy rating is a modern one. Nowadays the old C rating is more like an A or a B+ at least.
Opening fridges or freezers the least number of times needed is one way as is making sure the door seals are fully intact.

^Will there be a shortage of gas in the UK?
A spokesperson for the National Grid said: “The UK has never experienced a network gas supply emergency, and this scenario is extremely unlikely. “The UK has been well supplied with gas throughout the year, with reliable supplies coming in from the UK's North Sea resources and from Norway.”30 Jun 2022^

And Russia are burgning it off.

There isnt short supply. It is a matter of how much the Uk is prepared to pay for it.

At more than 6,588 trillion cubic feet recorded in 2016, global proved gas reserves are sufficient to meet more than 52 years of current production. As a region, the Middle East holds the largest reserves with 42.5% of the global total, while Iran holds the most proved gas resources as a country.

Thank you everyone who replied.

Our freezer is full but not our fridge which will be costing. I'm thinking of going to Aldi and buying a ton of their diet lemonade and filling it up as I do like that and it is cheap.

I wish we had not bought it.

I am old enough to remember some previous nationalisations.

You must be ancient then. I’m 69 and nothing’s been nationalised in my life time. Oh, apart from the accidental renationalisation of rail, which has been painless and cost neutral.

Current production. The weasel words of every energy document. The UK had enough coal for several hundred years production… at 1800 levels of usage.

Sure consumers can turn down the thermostat but business? energy intensive ones?

Funnily enough, we talked about this over lunch, some price rises have to happen but not on the scale they are at.
Our local pub has gone from 4k per month to over 12k, they have to close & they wont be the only only ones if this is not addressed.

It wont be the EU having the blackouts, it'll be us, with zero storage, we have no fall back position and they are also cutting use right now to boost storage, i.e. Germany has almost 100% (3 months worth) way ahead of target.

EU storage is at 67%. They need 90% to get through winter according to their own projections. Germany’s economy is already basically in recession with multiple industries from chemicals to metals and car manufacturing being impacted.

Three months gas storage doesn’t mean anything when Russia can cut off all exports to Germany and then Germany, once again, has to deal with its dumb energy decisions for the last twenty years.

The Spanish rightfully told the Germans to get fucked over this, and Norway and France won’t be propping them up when winter hits if it’s a cold one.

The UK has dependency levels well below the EU27, at 35% compared to over 50% for the EU.

Sure, Russia cutting off gas will hurt us. But it will destroy them.

As an aside, Germany is already spending 8.4% of its GDP just on present energy prices. That is totally unsustainable.

UK also needs vast imports during winter, across the year, our domestic supplies are around 50% of need.

The rest comes from Europe/imports and we are also "basically in" recession.

I just wonder who Norway will supply? support the EU/EFTA members or support a country that told them all to fuck off....

I also doubt Russia will cut ALL supplies, they need euros, even if they'd prefer Roubles.

But IF Russia cuts all supplies, our lack of any storage will hit home very very quickly... all of us, its not a competition either.

...and so will we, we ve spend around 40 billion so far, based on a price cap of 1900, not 6k..... and nothing, not a penny for business, when we do, and we will, we'll also be paying 100s of billions to domestic and business.

Its a mess isn't it.

I can't believe they were so stupid and short sighted as to halt nuclear power. It's not like they aren't loads of nuclear power stations just over their Western border.

Can't we create some more gas storage

Yes, this is happening right now in the UK. I have a contact at a well known energy firm who's in the team working on this, but its being kept under wraps so no citable sources can give

No, even Brough was just 10 days worth, can't pin this on the Cons either, no Govt in the last 40 years has seen it as a priority.

Ukraine offering to store gas for mainland europe, not quite sure how that works but given their (claimed) successes today, maybe.

The pension change wasn't exactly like that. Because I had alot of S2P my "old" pension is actually higher than the "new" pension. Have you checked if you are getting the right pension? If you didn't have a private pension the S2P can be a decent amount.

We do have the benefit of LNG terminals, which Germany has none of. Our main imports, leaving aside Norway which has voiced it will restrict exports to satisfy internal needs, are from Qatar and the US. Part of the reason Europe has been able to fill storage is because of regasified LNG coming in through our interconnectors.

I won’t hold my breath on Norway maintaining exports if things get dicey. While I wouldn’t say for sure Russia would cease all gas shipments to the EU, it’s not in their best interests to remove the foot from our collective throats. They’ve made a killing selling oil and gas even at a discount, making more than previously with lower exports simply due to the prices. They may just chance seeing the pain’s impact on our resolve from cutting off all gas.

As you say, it’s a mess, and one we collectively walked into with naïveté despite suspicions of Russia that even Trump pointed out, to which the Germans merely laughed at his protestations.

We better hope refilling hydro in Norway, repairing nuclear in France, and ramping up of coal and reversing nuke closures in Germany, all go without a hitch. We may get through this winter, at significant financial and social cost. But what of next winter?

Yes Germany has none (but is building one) but the EU has 18, including in Holland and Belgium and 4 in France, 7 in Spain.

UK has 3, with just one in England.

Nuclear is the future it's clean, green and can meet our needs.

Have scientists worked out how to dispose of the waste yet?
I remember a competition to design a sculpture that would warn future generations not to dig up the waste. The main problem was it would be lethal past the point at which we could expect our culture and language to disappear.
www.architectmagazine.com/design/culture/a-monument-for-containingand-protecting-againstnuclear-waste_o

For those struggling to get their heads around the numbers, and those asking about nationalisation, I recommend listening to the latest episode of the BBC Podcast “More or Less”, which looks at the numbers and statistics behind news stories.

I’ve tried to share the link on here but it won’t post! If you go to BBC Sounds and search for “More or Less” you will find it.