AIBU TO WONDER HOW IN GOD'S NAME PEOPLE WILL BE ABLE TO AFFORD THE INRESE IN ENERGY PRICES

[Diamondsareforever123]

OK this obviously won't affect those who are lucky enough to have money - but - how are those on low incomes/benefit, poor pensioners, etc. ever going to possibly be able to afford the energy price increases? Also the increases will have a knock-on price increase effect on everything we buy - food, clothes ...... I am concerned.

And its not always the case all Tories toe the line

But Boris has a huge majority and can afford a few Tory rebels. How many votes has the government lost since 2019?

[quote FancySomeChips]@ClaudineClare thank you, but I don’t understand it![/quote]
@FancySomeChips Are you in the South East? If so and you are not on a fixed deal your rates will go up to

Gas - standing charge 27.2p per day. 7.32p per KWH
Electricity standing charge 41.7p per day and 29.48p per KWH

If you have a look at the tariffs you are currently on, you will be able to compare. Your bills will show this.

(Unless you are on Economy 7, I don't know how that will work!)

You also don't seem to understand that even with a majority you still need enough Tories to vote a majority!!! And its not always the case all Tories toe the line.

Rebellions happen over key issues. I doubt this would be one. Whips are effective because most back-bench MPs are ambitious, and they also know that open rebellion, too often, weakens the party's authority, and with it their own electability. I'm afraid you are in a weak position, declaring that others are unfamiliar with Parliamentary norms.

You're also now in the realms of arguing a contingency on a contingency. You are inventing a fantasy to bolster your position, because reality doesn't.

If imagination is your only fallback, then your position isn't defensible.

So basically it would be cheaper now to go out and get a take away pizza or baked potato than to make it from scratch and cook it in the oven at home?

No because manufacturers/takeaways/shops will also have been hit by power price rises, so they are also going to cost more.

@Gardeningcreature

We should not have to live like this that is the entire point. Both dh and I work full time. I absolutely should not have to tolerate this shit. I didn’t vote for it. I’ll say it again. You will get the ‘Let’s blame X lazy bastards, they shouldn’t live in a house with central heating/feed their children/own a pair of shoes/own a car/have a phone etc etc etc When will people wake the fuck up. This government have spent BILLIONS on their mates and giving tax payers money to their mates. They do not give one fuck about anyone who has to actually work for a living. If you have had the privilege of attending a private school which cost £23,500 PER YEAR per child plus over £1000 for a uniform, you have no idea, repeat no idea what it will mean to go out to work to earn a living. The thought that some people will not be able to give their children a hot meal or bath them due to the sheer expense is incomprehensible to entitled (usually white middle class males) who are in power. You may as well talk in Chinese for all the comprehension they will have.

I send my kid to 1 of these schools, i am not white nor middle class. And if you mean Eton then that's over £40k per year ;-) I scrimp for it as its a huge chunk of my income, single parent too! Its not just the UK who's having to put up with these rises, we've actually been lucky with energy / water etc as its always been much cheaper than in europe, same with food ....

A lot of the rest of Europe is taking a lot more action to protect people from the energy crisis, though mylifestory.

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jan/31/as-uk-households-feel-pressure-how-are-other-european-countries-tackling-energy-crisis

I am hoping we will be ok because we are making a huge change by moving into a flat.

It it appalling that some children will grow up cold and hungry.

Damp houses, empty cupboards, clothes which smell because they can't dry quick enough...I never thought I'd see Victorian style suffering in my lifetime.

I worked in housing when the stories came back into power. They pompously broke housing associations by removing life long tenancies, charging market rate rents, the bedroom tax and withdrawing subsidy for building new homes by giving it to developers instead.

Their absolute derision for housing association tenants came off them like a stink bomb.

And life for Boris is one long party isn't it?

The Tories only care about the already wealthy.

You also don't seem to understand that even with a majority you still need enough Tories to vote a majority!!! And its not always the case all Tories toe the line.

They've been in power for 12 years. They're not bound by decisions which Parliament (rather than Ed Miliband!) made 14 years ago. If they'd foreseen issues with the law as it stands then they could have put forward a solution and had it considered by Parliament. If not then they should have used their best endeavours to ensure the security of our energy supplies.

'Best endeavours' probably shouldn't have included leaving the EU, getting rid of most of our gas storage capacity or making our government a laughing-stock and thereby weakening both the EU's and NATO's stance against Russia over Ukraine.

Tories not stories although they can certainly tell a tale or two...

Just simply.... Deaths and illness by Covid - not too many these days thank goodness!! Compared to pre vaccine times.

I can see deaths by hypothermia on the increase (oaps especially), illness caused by malnutrition (children especially), suicide and stress related illness caused by mounting debts for sure. With the greedy government, gas and electricity companies to blame 😡

I personally am used to a chilly house. Its old, with high ceilings. Walls with no cavity insulation... Am used to wearing warm clothes, keeping a blanket in the front room. Having quick showers. But it's drying the washing in the colder months that I struggle with. Use our dryer or put the central heating 🤔

[quote ClaudineClare]A lot of the rest of Europe is taking a lot more action to protect people from the energy crisis, though mylifestory.

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/jan/31/as-uk-households-feel-pressure-how-are-other-european-countries-tackling-energy-crisis[/quote]
I don't know about the other countries on the list, but the prices in Spain are already astronomical and have been for years. There would be civil unrest if they hiked then by 50% here. You'd be talking 150€ per month electricity for a small flat. It's already 90€ using the bare minimum.

@RosesAndHellebores

The Government has just funded a furlough scheme for millions. Where is the money to come from? The country brayed to lock down. It cost.

Wage inflation will increase. House price inflation will stagnate. It's all swings and roundabouts. Huge open plan living spaces will go out of fashion again. What goes round comes round.

This corrupt Tory government squandered billions on a shoddy track and trace system that didn’t work, billions more was gifted to fraudsters, billions wasted on duff PPE, they’ve gifted billions in tax cuts to the mega-rich! That’s just for starters!! All of that wasted, stolen money could have paid for furlough and then some!

@ClaudineClare

Christ, people still find ways to blame Labour for the mess we are in.

The Tories have had over a decade to reverse anything they felt wasn't beneficial to the ordinary person on the street.

They haven't done that because the Tories don't give a shiny shite about ordinary people.

Exactly this!! Tory lovers harping on about Labour policies that are over a decade old and turning a blind eye to everything their party has done to decimate living conditions in recent years. Laughable!

You can overpay anyone, just increase the dd. I send an odd tenner to council tax, already 100£ into 2022 council tax

LaDamaDeElche are Spanish homes electric only or do they use gas too? Just curious.

@Idontliketuesdays

So basically it would be cheaper now to go out and get a take away pizza or baked potato than to make it from scratch and cook it in the oven at home?

Honestly, I see your thinking but absolutely not cheaper to buy takeaways.

An electric oven uses about 0.87 kWh of electricity an hour. So, if we average the costs from all of the energy providers in the UK, that works out at about 14p an hour to run your electric oven.24 May 2020 (Npower)

Even allowing for the new price caps it's going to be less than £1 an hour. Before people panic and turn everything off, it's worth investigating how much appliances cost and what budget to set/economies to make.
Things like electric fires and electric showers are the heaviest users.

Yep a bIt too late now! Is it really a surprise that gas/ fossil fuel prices were going to go up ? Do you think the government did not know this was going to happen and they were not warn about this for the past decade at least but refused to think ahead or make Choices which will deny big bonuses ? The not funny thing they will probably still be voted in the next round again .

Both DH and I work for the public sector, and have been on pay freezes for more than 10 years. Both had promotions in that time, but still relatively poorer now than we were before on lower grades as the cost of living has already gone up way ahead of the increases in wage the promotions have given us. We're not low income so don't qualify for any help, but certainly a long way off what Mumsnet seems to consider middle income. I don't know how we are going to cope with the increases in energy prices. We were planning to have got solar panels installed by now but we simply can't save enough to pay for them (we are not the sort of people to put things on credit cards). Thank goodness the car got through its MOT last month!

We had to replace our old,inefficient boiler at the start of winter. That's 60 a month repayment for the next 3 years before we even start on the bills.
Heated throws are our new best friends.

Both DH and I work from home. Heating is off, and we have electric fleece throws round our legs when working. We go to bed around 8pm and watch TV with the electric blanket on; again pennies per hour. We’ll go on like this till around April. We shower every day but I wash my hair after I go swimming a few times per week. If we hadn’t closed all the mines we could use the coal that is still down there. We are lucky that we can live like this, but people with DC can’t send them to bed to keep warm. It’s a terrible thing to have to decide heat or eat.

Heating is off, and we have electric fleece throws round our legs when working

Interesting - I did think they would be expensive to run but they are only 150 watts.

I’m going to opt out of my pension, cancel my life assurance and cancel my contents insurance. I haven’t made one claim on the contents in 20 years. Also virtually stopped drinking which has saved a fortune.

We are a "squeezed middle" family. DH on a good wage, and I work part time. At the moment, I am actually paying to work because nursery is so expensive, but if I don't work now, I will lose my much-loved job. We don't qualify for any benefits. But with student loans, NI, rent, gas/electric, transport, NHS surcharge and my LTR visa, nursery, plus groceries and other necessities, we are in a very precarious position. I honestly don't know how we're going to make payments.

I have written to my MP, but she's absolutely useless and doesn't care about anything except her own career. I would protest, but I can't afford to get to London plus it's basically illegal now . I did not and will not ever vote Tory. I voted to Remain. Not sure what else I can do.

Our fixed price term finishes in March - we've been paying £100 a month. It's going to go up to £204 a month ......... I'm dreading it 😔😔