Surely they can’t expect us to pay 240 per month for power!

[Ellie198712]

Just read Martin Lewis’s latest email and it’s predicting average bills of £2900 per year!! Surely the government will need to step in and subsidise this cost. Our current bill is about 100 per month, and this just seems untenable for the vast majority

Yes the govt should pay it via taxpayers bcs tax is determined on a sliding scale if affordability. That is the only fair way really to ensure the poorer members of society don’t freeze. It also ultimately saves taxpayers’ money as we won’t develop a grossly underprivileged section of society with massive health problems who are unable to work etc etc. Be a long time waiting for a Tory govt to see this tho…

don't get the pricing at all. I remember when we sold off to French companies the French were laughing at us saying their energy was cheap because we paid so much over the odds that it subsidised them.

EDF own the nuclear fleet and is mainly French state owned.,

Each Fench electrric bill is discounted due to the profits EDF make on this energy.;

To clarify EDF own UK nuclear fleet

@tttigress

Erm, but if the government subsidies the people who pays? The tax payer. Who is the tax payer? The people!!

Exactly! So do you want to pay the government for your heating, or the energy supplier?

All these people clamouring for the govt to step in and subsidise their bills - the govt doesn't have a magic pot of money to pay your bills with - if they need to raise money to pay people's bills they will raise your taxes to do it!

@Proudboomer and @speakout this must be doubly hard for you both, I’m so sorry you’re going through this additional stress.

We currently pay £130 a month on a standard tariff, are £500 in credit on the account despite it being the end of winter, but somehow getting quoted £500 a month from 1 April. I don’t get it!

@BarbaraofSeville

Our cat is so cold she's suffering and she can't cope. She's curled into a tiny ball and is tucking herself into places to try to get warm

We have cats and I do wonder if they get cold, especially if we're reducing the heating to try and reduce the cost. But I am thinking probably not unless they're old/ill or very young (we foster rescue cats so often have nursing mothers/kittens, who naturally all pile up together whatever the temperature.

But we have a couple of ]] that I use if I'm concerned that the kittens are cold, so if he's serious about putting the heating on 'for the cat' then one of these, tucked into one of her favourite sleeping places might be a worthwhile investment?

Thanks. She's not got one of those but she does have two fleecy igloos, one upstairs and one downstairs. I might buy one of those too and put it on her chair. Which is my chair. High seat high back because I can't safely raise from a low seat but she's decided it's her chair 🙄

the govt doesn't have a magic pot of money to pay your bills with

The=is government has lots of magic money for politically expedient projects and they positively stuff the pockets of their friends full of our cash, the cunts.

[quote Cyw2018]@Proudboomer

Dreamland relaxwell heated faux fur throw are brilliant (I can only get to level 2 of 6 before overheating), they are cheap to run and washable. Might be worth investing in one for your mum.[/quote]
Thanks I will have a look at one. But the good news is I have just had a phone call from warmauk and I have been given government funding for 8 solar panels and with a cancellation due to someone having covid they will be fitted this afternoon. Will still have to wait for the electrician to wire me in but hopefully by the end of the month they will be up and running.

I am not sure of our position on electric, but I am rurally based and rely on oil for heating. We try currently to use as little as possible. This means an hour in the morning before work and school and three hours in the evening, relying on a log burner in between. We last filled oil in February. Prices had risen then but the rate was 64p a litre which lasts about three months at full tilt. As at today, the quoted price for heating oil is 181p, i.e. it has risen by a factor of 3. We are just hoping it settles. For many this will just not add up.

@Ceci03

I don't understand - forgive me if I am thick - but with Shell and others announcing BILLIONS AND BILLIONS in profit - why can't they be allowed to absorb the price rise?????

This. As far as I can tell the system is set up so the 1% continue to make massive profits while the poorest struggle.

Effectively they steal from the poorest. It's disgusting.

They were talking on the radio about all the electricity companies that have folded. But I bet every single one had a load of shareholders who made a massive profit - are they being asked to pay some of that back, since it was clearly not based on a sustainable business model? Where's the responsibility? They were talking about the taxpayer bailing out the costs from these folded companies - but what about the rich shareholders?

If the rest of us borrowed massively on a credit card taking lots of money (profits) out and then found we couldn't pay it back because it was unsustainable we'd either have to go bankrupt or pay it back over time. But these shareholders as far as I can tell can make profits and then just walk away and normal people have to pick up the tab.

How is that not stealing?

@daimbarsatemydogsbone

the govt doesn't have a magic pot of money to pay your bills with

The=is government has lots of magic money for politically expedient projects and they positively stuff the pockets of their friends full of our cash, the cunts.

Ah you must be harking back to the Blair years and the money spent on the Iraq war. Or maybe the huge amount John Prescott spent on tarting up his flat when in power.

You can't blame just one party.

Most of the rise in costs is due to green taxes and VAT (the latter of which could be removed now we are no longer in the EU). These two things together comprise about 20% of energy bills. And it's got very little to do with Russia since the UK only gets about 5% of its gas from them but easy excuse for Boris and his rich green chums to hide behind (how many rich landowners benefit from subsidies for wind farms and the like?). We need to get rid of the ridiculous and financially ruinous "net zero" asap which makes the rich richer and forces everyone else to pay through the nose.

@5thnonblonde
Trouble is that the public are led by the media. When a nationalised service runs into a bad period or has a price hike it gets crucified, the government is kicked out and people shake their heads at how terrible public run utilities are. And yet when private companies hike the prices through the roof people just shrug and say “that’s the free market,- we can always go to another provider”. An other provider which has also raised prices their through the roof.

Ultimately, both the government and private companies will try to provide a good price for the customer. But the difference is that a good price for the private company is “Good Relative to what other private providers are charging”. They don’t care if there is 10-20% of the country that can’t afford ANY provider, as there’s still a huge market to be fought for. Whereas a a good price for a government run utility is “what citizens of this country can actually afford to pay”. Because 20% of the population without gas is more than enough to swing an election.

I don't understand - forgive me if I am thick - but with Shell and others announcing BILLIONS AND BILLIONS in profit - why can't they be allowed to absorb the price rise?????

They already are. And they will use some of that money to use for green energy development.

Energy costs are a global issue based on the price of oil.
It's not just a UK problem.

@lonelyapple
Yeah unfortunately the eye watering capitalist lifestyles of the 0.01% are not compatible with the fight against climate change. And until the government does tackle the hypocrisy of the giant yachts, private planes and 1000sq metre mansions, then there will be a sizeable proportion of the populace at large who will be unwilling to accept changes to their own lifestyles. The cuts need to start at the very top. Once the 0.1% has cut their share THEN we can ask the global 10% (ie most of us) to cut our share. Otherwise it’s just BS.

It is ridiculous. Ours is already that for 5 people in a four bed semi detached house. There will be less use from next month but can't wait for it to go up 50% in October! We are in the top 5% of households probably and so many people will find this completely unaffordable. People were already in fuel poverty as it was.

This is what happens when you leave things to the market to decide. Basically since 2008 there has been a massive appropriation of everyone's money by the very top half a percent or so - oligarchs, disaster, capitalists, plutocrats, FTSE 100 directors and the like. They have got massively richer while everyone else has become poorer. Governments seem happy to stand aside while individuals and companies become richer and more powerful than entire nations.

@Rapita: good tips esp covering gaps with duct tape & lining curtains, I expect I will be adding lining to several pairs of curtains here, the blankets & safety pins makes it realistic to do yourself so thanks

Ah you must be harking back to the Blair years
No, I am talking about the government we have right now.

The Blair years are ancient history to anyone except pathetic "but Labour" whataboutists.

Just had an e mail this morning. Our fixed rate ends in April so will be paying £170 a month instead of £85

I am really worried about the price rises too. We have really inefficient heating downstairs and we've been toying with the idea of getting a stove burner in the lounge so we only have to heat one room during the winter and can switch the central heating off but I know that isn't environmental. But since our small gas/electricity company went bust over the winter we've ended up with one of the big 6 energy companies anyway.

There's a good article in the Guardian today by George Monbiot about how the government could use this opportunity to invest in greener schemes for insulation, heat pumps and renewable energy. I'm sure though that fossil fuel lobbyists are bending the government's ear to ensure that doesn't happen.

@Rosehugger

It is ridiculous. Ours is already that for 5 people in a four bed semi detached house. There will be less use from next month but can't wait for it to go up 50% in October! We are in the top 5% of households probably and so many people will find this completely unaffordable. People were already in fuel poverty as it was.

This is what happens when you leave things to the market to decide. Basically since 2008 there has been a massive appropriation of everyone's money by the very top half a percent or so - oligarchs, disaster, capitalists, plutocrats, FTSE 100 directors and the like. They have got massively richer while everyone else has become poorer. Governments seem happy to stand aside while individuals and companies become richer and more powerful than entire nations.

^This. Until we stop the 1% stealing from the rest of us we (ordinary folk) are fucked.

It's also scandalous that the Government has decided that the best way to get money back is to take 1.5% of NI from those in work (rather than increase taxes which would apply to rich landlords, retired pensioners on big pensions and other people who can easily avoid NI, people who have already been gifted billions in freebies over the years). It's a tax on work, coming from the party that claims to be the party of meritocracy and business! So, lower and middle income workers are going to be paying for the Tories pandemic largesse and their inability to plan basic infrastructure projects to secure the future of energy for their population. If they were a private company they would all have been sacked years ago.

@daimbarsatemydogsbone

the govt doesn't have a magic pot of money to pay your bills with

The=is government has lots of magic money for politically expedient projects and they positively stuff the pockets of their friends full of our cash, the cunts.

Bizarre comment.

@bobbinHood

Is your 1st name Elizabeth and do you live in a very big house in Windsor??

£500?! Thats absolutely disgusting. That's my mortgage a month 🥺