Energy companies and high bills

[Lavendersummer]

I don’t understand why the government can change the law for a short period so energy companies profits reduce and it’s passed to reduce customers bills.
They could change the law for Covid, telemedicine abortions and other rules during the crisis. Why not this? Yes profits etc etc. But it would make sense for the short term.

Can’t change the law

They could they just don't want to.
Conservatives are all about protecting profits ahead of pretty much everything else.

What do you want them to change?

Energy companies need to make a profit or they will simply cease to supply energy. Think of all the energy companies that went under last year. Do you want the rest to withdraw from the market and leave us with no suppliers?

The govt could introduce a windfall tax on the gas companies profits and use it to pay for the cost of living payments. That would help. Removing VAT would help. But in the end the energy price is set on the world market. Russia is threatening the west. We've allowed ourselves to get in this situation. Our houses have needed insulation for years - we did nothing - we scrapped our gas storage tanks - we left ourselves vulnerable.
We need to work together within the world price to keep each other warm. Moaning won't help.

The companies who sell us energy aren't making a profit anyway. No, really. It's the wholesale cost of the product they sell us that has increased massively.

They could impose a windfall tax on the producers but that still wouldn't solve the problem of a gas shortage (supply and demand) and despite them making billions in profit, the potential rebate per UK household due to this isn't that much.

If a company makes £100 BN profit and they impose a 50% windfall tax solely for the benefit of UK consumers, nevermind everyone else on the planet, that's a whole £2000 that we'll get each and even that won't cover the amount it's gone up recently. Plus we'll lose out in other ways because that profit is contributing to pension funds.

Exactly - the dependency on Russia is the problem. Not saying the government has got everything right, but the minute Putin invaded Ukraine the domestic consequences were obvious and would be beyond the control of any government.