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Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Gas and electricity bills to soar

783 replies

Cosmos123 · 18/09/2021 17:33

This is worrying as it will push many into fuel poverty.
Rising food prices and empty shelves.
Is anyone worried?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
14
HarebrightCedarmoon · 20/09/2021 10:40

Someone on a local forum said their bill went up by 250% from one month to another.

This is unacceptable and we should organise mass civil disobedience and refuse to pay.

Mumtofourandnomore · 20/09/2021 10:42

The thing is, everybody moans about the big 6 and how they rip people off, but it’s often because they hedge their prices well in advance (ie they fix the price of their gas in advance). So if prices fall really low, they can’t pass on that cost to consumers (because they are paying the fixed price), whereas small suppliers just buy their gas in the market as required, so can benefit from low prices.

Then when prices spike, all the little suppliers go bust, and the big suppliers can continue giving their customers decent prices because they’ve already bought their gas in advance. The big suppliers can’t take on new customers though, because they haven’t bought enough gas for people they didn’t know about.

My fix runs out imminently, but I will be staying on a variable rate for the time being, gas price curves are forecast to decrease in a few months and I don’t want to be stuck on an expensive fix. I guess the government might suspend the price cap but suspect not. For information, all the costs relating to ‘unhedged customers’ of suppliers going bust will end up on everybody’s bills so not only do you have to pay your bills, you’ve got to pay the additional costs from the customers that the little suppliers have thrown to the wall. It shouldn’t be so easy to set up as a little supplier.

HarebrightCedarmoon · 20/09/2021 10:42

Also how is household usage going up? More than in lockdown? More people are back at work, surely? Kids are in school?

HarebrightCedarmoon · 20/09/2021 10:44

Just nationalise it. It's absolutely ridiculous that there was ever allowed to be a market for something as basic as gas, electricity and water and that companies were allowed to make profit on it. Energy is a complete rip off in this country.

doublemonkey · 20/09/2021 10:45

Yikes @Dayofpeace, Wish I'd read your post then! Can you expand on the investments angle please?

PattyPan · 20/09/2021 10:47

@HarebrightCedarmoon

Someone on a local forum said their bill went up by 250% from one month to another.

This is unacceptable and we should organise mass civil disobedience and refuse to pay.

Hmm

Yes my bill goes up a lot too when you compare June and January. Did their tariff go up 250%? I doubt it.

Tittyfilarious81 · 20/09/2021 10:48

According to bulb my energy usage in August was 40 pounds more than July , I was on holiday for a week and didn't use the heating or the dryer at all that month it's absolutely shocking

PattyPan · 20/09/2021 10:51

@LakieLady can you get your house better insulated? I think it would really pay off for you. My bathroom gets down to that sort of temperature but it has no insulation at all (bad extension) whereas the rest of the house is much warmer and doesn’t get below 15. It’s 21 now - I’m in shorts!

BarbaraofSeville · 20/09/2021 10:52

@HarebrightCedarmoon

Just nationalise it. It's absolutely ridiculous that there was ever allowed to be a market for something as basic as gas, electricity and water and that companies were allowed to make profit on it. Energy is a complete rip off in this country.
I agree that basic utilities should be nationalised and the price only that needed to cover the costs, but I think it's also the case that our prices are still cheaper than a lot of other countries.

Someone up thread mentioned Spain as having much higher prices than the UK and I've also heard that electricity is very expensive in Turkey and those are both countries where the general cost of living and wages are lower than the UK. It would be interesting to see a list of prices per kWh for different countries for comparison.

On the matter of heating overnight, if you have your thermostat set at 12/14 C, the heating will only actually come on in the depths of winter, unless your insulation is non existent, so it's not going to cost much most of the time, and you should do what you can to improve your insulation - there are often grants available to get it done free or quite cheaply, certainly worth paying for and there's also the environmental, as well as the cost benefit, because that's what a lot of this is about.

We need to reduce our usage for the environment. It's simply not enough for more well off people to use loads of gas and electricity heating their house more than necessary because they can afford to.

FreddyMercurysCat · 20/09/2021 10:53

Well, I am refusing to pay - I've cancelled my direct debit until Bulb investigates their ridiculous bill. They’ve upped my direct debit on the back of it, by over £100 p/m - seems like they're making a run on the banks before the shit hits the fan.

I'll top up my usual amount through the app.

LeafOfTruth · 20/09/2021 11:01

Prices per mWh across Europe (current prices)

Gas and electricity bills to soar
MrsLargeEmbodied · 20/09/2021 11:17

people will be less keen on wfh now

StatesOfMatter · 20/09/2021 11:25

@MrsLargeEmbodied

people will be less keen on wfh now
I don’t know energy bills going up £300-£700 a year or paying £2-5k for commuting plus time. I know which I would choose.

The possible savings made from wfh (even with hybrid working) are going elsewhere. The next version of the ‘new normal’

HectorGloop · 20/09/2021 11:25

DH has worked in the energy industry for nearly 20 years. He said last week was the busiest, most stressful week he has had in his entire working career.

loopylindi · 20/09/2021 11:32

aahhhh..... we were with a smaller provider that has just gone under, with us being £150 in credit. We've been assured that who ever takes over will honour that but we're still waiting. If, as a previous poster has said no other companies will take new customers - where does that leave us? Bad times are a-coming.....

FreddyMercurysCat · 20/09/2021 11:34

@MrsLargeEmbodied

people will be less keen on wfh now
Nope - these increases will hit offices and workplaces too. I’d rather sit in a oodie at home with a hot water bottle on my feet than shiver in a freezing cold office.
Hopdathelf · 20/09/2021 11:35

Don't understand how varied payments are!

@anonymousanne people live in different places you know, and different types of houses, and have different tolerances for heat and cold, and a million other things.

Stellaris22 · 20/09/2021 11:40

Bring back the CEGB.

Although we want lots of companies to encourage competition. Going back to the Big 6 needs to be avoided as that stops prices from falling. A popular saying in the industry from the Big 6 is 'prices rise like a rocket and fall like a feather'.

Mytooferts · 20/09/2021 11:49

@LeafOfTruth

Prices per mWh across Europe (current prices)
Wish people would take more notice of how it really is.
CausingChaos2 · 20/09/2021 11:56

My account with bulb is still working at the moment. Worrying times ahead.

TheGoogleMum · 20/09/2021 12:01

Hmm my bill was due on 14th apparently and no sign of it....

the80sweregreat · 20/09/2021 12:02

Does anyone know if Shell energy is still trading ?
Or with them ?

MrsLargeEmbodied · 20/09/2021 12:10

i have just changed my tariff yet my gas price is more

MojoMoon · 20/09/2021 12:10

Those are wholesale prices for one specific day - wholesale prices make up only about 50pc of the end user bill. The rest is grid fees, taxes and levies.

The UK is mid table for end user costs once all those are added on. Germany, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Denmark and Ireland are above us.

www.statista.com/statistics/1046505/household-electricity-prices-european-union-eu28-country/

The government could remove the a large chunk of the levies and taxes on electricity bills and pay for them out of general taxation which would be more progressive. But they prefer to hide them in your bill so you blame the supplier and not the government.

MrsLargeEmbodied · 20/09/2021 12:10

i am not sure i have done the right thing.