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

For context - and a way to make changes, a 10 KWH shower now costs £5 an hour to run (on full power full heat)

So that's about 80p for 10 minutes - so reducing shower time can make a real impact.

There are other tweaks - but it's knowing the energy usage of devices that really helps.

Last winter my energy bill averaged £165 per month. At the new price, this will be £565 per month.

Summer months averaged £65, new prices would be £260 - although of course the cap will probably have risen by next summer.....

We use 3300 kw of electric and 16,000 kw of gas a year, 4 bed detached, 2 adults, 1 teen. 1 person WFH 4 days a week. Just to give people an idea.

We have lowered the temp on the boiler and the water tank, and reduced times the water heats since last winter (we'd newly moved in) so hoping we can lower that by a bit, but that it's ridiculous money. I'm astounded at how far and fast this country is going to shit

i am going to enjoy the sunny weather while it is here!

Surely it would also make sense for financial support to be targeted by region as well as household? My guess is it gets a lot colder in a farmhouse in the sticks in Cumbria than it does in an urban city flat in London or Bristol?

Can the government maybe slightly increase tax to fund this? I’d happily pay a few quid a month more in income tax if it can help control bills.

more income tax isn't right imo. The "rich" don't tend to be on paye. Bring CGT in line with income tax at least, increase tax on multiple home ownership etc.

I honestly think it would have been helpful for the government to have treated this situation like covid. We are in.essence 'at war’. This is a war time situation with the potential for blackouts and food rationing down the line.

I understand that no one wants to use that rhetoric due to needing to pretend it’s business as usual and Ukraine are the ones with bombs raining down on them but this situation is being caused by the sanctions Europe and the US have imposed on Russian exports and it’s not going to ease any time soon.

This is a simple thing the government could be doing noW to help. Why not subside battery storage

Even if there were the money and the will, who's going to install all these home batteries? They aren't plug and play. MCS accredited installers are off their feet with current demand and there is already a shortage of general electricians in the country.

cries in north of Scotland winter temps

"There will be lots of things we can each do, that we have never even thought of - there are plenty of threads on here giving examples and tips of how to economise"

True we can cut consumption where we can but let's be honest. Lots of people are frugal with use as it is and they won't be able to cut consumption by 80% will they?

Then they will need to cut consumption even more in January when the need for heating. Is highest.....

This is a thread I started a while ago to help with electrical devices and power

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4600620-the-true-cost-of-running-electrical-devices-a-useful-guide?

And those idiots are back on the M25 smashing up fuel pumps at service stations. Anti oil protests.

Do these people not realise that they are making things a lot worse?

Lorry’s delivering food and goods not being able to fill up.

Well done genius people.

My house in London has no roof insulation at all, incredibly thin single glazing, massive holes around the doors and in the floorboards. I'm not sure dividing by region will work.

The standing charge seems so bloody unfair.

So my DD goes up but £123 1st September but from doing my own maths this isn't going to cover the increase, is EDF using the £66 rebate to bring the cost down?

And when do these charges start? October?

Bad analogy really. Most people could manage without a car: it might be difficult, and inconvenient, but for most of us it's doable, even if it might involve changing jobs.

Very, very few of us can manage without electricity.

We need another mild winter and early spring, I suppose it's too early for long range forecasts? I know we have a third year of La Nina which is apparently unusual...fucked if I know what that means for weather patterns though.

I saw a tweet from a magistrate yesterday who had just resigned, and one of the main reasons was not wanting to sign off these orders which allow entry (and which they said were poorly scrutinised)

The poll tax/community charge was in some ways fairer than council tax. As a fairly low earning working couple at the time, we supported it.

These fuel charges are of a different magnitude. We are now pensioners, on a lowish income which is marginally above Pension Credit cut off, so we, like loads of others, are not eligible for the £650 from the government to help with these added costs. However, as we’ve not used our heating all summer (has anyone?) we have built up enough credit to pay for a couple of months over winter. The £400 and the WFA will help a bit too. Thermals, blankets, hot water bottles at the ready, but I expect it will be fairly miserable.

Am currently paying £115 a month (I fixed last September). Quote for October 2023 fix = £400 a month. Almost 4x the amount. So no it’s not as simple as 80% more than you’re paying now.

Personally, I feel the government/energy companies should be supporting those truly struggling and not making general payments to all households... if you have a 6 bed detached mansion in the country or a second/third home then good for you, but now you have to finance it.

I agree that's not fair

Well reminded.

Have you any idea what the typical usage actually is?

I think I'm quite below that but I'm even worried about bills of £200 a month and I was £85 until April.

If you pay by DD check that your energy supplier hasn't put you on their budget plan, their estimated figures are taken from Dutch Royal Shell, which inform the DD they charge you. Ours had put us on it, and estimated we used 21046kwh per year, in reality we use 1800kwh per year - see pic below.

We now inform the energy supplier of our past month usage, and set aside money in our bank account and will pay the bill quarterly.

Watching him. He's so upset by this.

I really wish he'd take on a role in government.

I'm utterly screwed because I'm in a big block of flats where our heating is supplied communally. It won't make any difference if I shut my radiators off because I will still be liable for a proportion of the (massive) communal bill regardless.

I feel your pain, but London in Winter is still at least 5 degrees warmer than the north most of the time.. probably more so at night, pretty rare to get deep frosts or snow..

Re quoting 'the price cap' vs 'unit rates', seeing as how energy is priced is so poorly understood by so many (look how many people talk about 'we're on a fixed rate of £80 a month so I don't understand why they want to put my DD up to £220 pm I thought the price cap had gone up 54% to £1971 a year and that's more than that'?) do people really think that people are going to understand '

The unit rate for electricity has gone up from A to B and the standing charge has gone up from C to D. For gas, the unit rate has gone up from E to F and the standing charge has gone up from G to H?

Rather than 'the price cap for a typical household has gone up 80% to £3500'?

You must be aware that if you live in a small flat and are always out at work or sociallising you'll use less than that and if you live in a leaky 5 bed and spend your life running the tumble dryer with the heating on 24/7 you'll use a lot more, and if you don't, perhaps at least a year ago now is the time to find out?

All the information is on your bill, so you could start by reading it.