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

Ours has gone from £130 up to £220. It’s going to be a struggle when you combine it with rising petrol, food taxes etc.

British Gas enjoy a 44% profit this year so for everyone harping on about how the government and energy companies are absorbing the cost - they aren't. In other countries, for example with the French government, they have put a cap on the increase in energy costs for customers but ours have not.

Yup my gas and electric has already jumped to £230 since around Nov last year

Maybe it’s time to rise up?!

What kind of fucking twat voted YABU..?

It's going to be very hard for so many people. The poor as always will be hit the hardest.

People will end up getting cut off or they may be allowed to enter a future payment plan, but essentially people have to pay or they lose their gas/electricity supply.

@HereComesSpringAgain

all our contracts will drop off throughout spring/summer

i'm a 70's child

i remember the constant power cuts
i remember the drought with no water in the taps
i remember food being a lot scarcer than it is now
i remember having just one coal fire as home heating

we need to adjust our mindsets now....as harsh as it sounds, its how many other countries manage. it can be done and we all might be a bit better off in other ways. it doesn't have to be as miserable as we think

Yep, I'm a 70's child too. I grew up not realising the power cuts weren't 'normal' same with water & food...

BUT

Experience as a child is not the same as living through it as an adult AND having had affordable heating & food for many years now.

Most of us will scrape through, some won't notice much difference (Sunak the twat) & some will struggle enormously.

I think all we can do is help those that need it as much as possible. Help them insulate their homes over this summer etc.

@SecretSquirrel111

Do we think they’ll be a housing market crash if people are forced to downsize?

No, why are people always asking this question as if they want it to happen?

@usernameshistory

British Gas enjoy a 44% profit this year so for everyone harping on about how the government and energy companies are absorbing the cost - they aren't. In other countries, for example with the French government, they have put a cap on the increase in energy costs for customers but ours have not.

They have just raised the cap so they can make more profit, guess who would come out as the owners, investors, board members if you followed the money.

So house prices will go down to a more realistic level.

People will die of cold next winter

In one of the worlds richest countries.

Ours has gone from £270/month up to £650/month. From April we are looking at over £800/month. It’s like having another mortgage to pay.

I remember one coal fire in the living room to heat the whole house, and waking up with ice (frozen condensation) on the INside of the single-glazed windows in the bedroom.

Of course most houses, and all flats, don't have real fires now, so no choice but to use gas or electric or go without heating.

The government may care if it starts to affect their core voters... which it might do tbh. It's not just those on the bones of their arse who are going to struggle.

@D0lphine

People will die of cold next winter

In one of the worlds richest countries.

Sat next to a radiator they can't afford to switch on.

Maybe they should just be more stoic too?

@HereComesSpringAgain

all our contracts will drop off throughout spring/summer

i'm a 70's child

i remember the constant power cuts
i remember the drought with no water in the taps
i remember food being a lot scarcer than it is now
i remember having just one coal fire as home heating

we need to adjust our mindsets now....as harsh as it sounds, its how many other countries manage. it can be done and we all might be a bit better off in other ways. it doesn't have to be as miserable as we think

I was thinking this myself. We (as a society) may have to go back to basics for a while. But FML it's always the lower earners who have to suffer the most.

I think the NI rise should be delayed for a year or at least make it a tax rise so everyone has to contribute.

I also think the energy companies should share the load. Green development incentives or not, their profits are obscene. I realise our pension companies are almost certainly shareholders but I'd rather take the hit at that end and I'm not far off retirement (or I wasn't until the market vulnerability going on now).

@FourTeaFallOut

*i'm a 70's child

i remember the constant power cuts
i remember the drought with no water in the taps
i remember food being a lot scarcer than it is now
i remember having just one coal fire as home heating*

Do you remember the excess winter deaths?

i don't remember there being an excess, no. we were from a northern mining town. we would go through the slag heaps and follow the coal man ,collecting coal to share out between families. but nor local deaths were from emphysema...from working the pits

also, winters are a little milder these days..just a little

amp.theguardian.com/business/2022/jan/14/france-edf-cap-household-energy

How other governments have stepped in

We will not be able to afford heating next winter, it’s that simple and millions of people will be in a similar situation.

I understand some people wanted to go back to the good old days but this is a bit extreme.

I'm paying £200 a month on a fixed rate deal. When that ends my bill is gluing to be £400 a
month.

4 bed house.

It is worth pointing out that most pension schemes, including the auto-enrolment ones, have a lot of shares in the gas and electricity companies. So if they aren't making good profits then the value of your future pension goes down.

Well, the excess winter deaths were considerably higher. Access to warm, damp free, mould free homes is life saving for those with vulnerabilities.

@AllOfUsAreDead

Of course they can. 😂 They can also force you to spend tons on fuel for your car, and more money on food when prices rise, and more money on houses etc. Of course they can force this, and not care that you're struggling, and keep raising prices while doing nothing to stop it, mainly because your politicians are shareholders in these companies.

Stop thinking they care! They don't! None of them do.

Agree with this, sadly. It's a fact that life is easier once you stop thinking politicians care about anyone but themselves.

@HereComesSpringAgain

all our contracts will drop off throughout spring/summer

i'm a 70's child

i remember the constant power cuts
i remember the drought with no water in the taps
i remember food being a lot scarcer than it is now
i remember having just one coal fire as home heating

we need to adjust our mindsets now....as harsh as it sounds, its how many other countries manage. it can be done and we all might be a bit better off in other ways. it doesn't have to be as miserable as we think

Yep.

We are having a talk this weekend about how we will manage. We have already discussed how we each managed as kids. One room being heated. Hot drinks, flasks; Hot food, flasks. Hot water bottles. Layers of clothes in bed and out. Blankets over quilts. Large candles in glass jars with water at the bottom.

All sorts of childhood memories. That and we lived very rurally for over a decade and couldn't rely on electric, or water as it turned out! So we know how to mollycoddle a fridge and freezer through a power cut etc.

It will be different to much of what many people are used to. It's a totally different mind set. But it is doable and doesn't have to be as miserable as many are prophesying.

I lived with bedrooms with ice on the inside of the bedroom windows as a kid. Seeing my breath in my bedroom when I got out of bed. Sleeping with my slippers, clean socks, knickers and vest in my bed to keep them warm for morning. Mum keeping hot water in flasks over night so we could wash our faces in tepid water before going to school. Dad stuffing school shoes with newspaper and leaving them near the hearth so they would be warm and dry ish in the morning. All sorts of stuff that most of us just don't have to think about these days.