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

I remember the 70s too.
The rubbish on the streets.
Both me and my toddler brothers job was to get the candles when the lights went out.
My parents tired faces.
Sitting in coats.
And now, 50 years on, we're here again.

Ours went up £60 per month. Unfortunately that takes my outgoings above my income. I've managed to get a third job but won't get my first salary until end of May now, so we've switched off the heating and only eating cold food at home in the meantime. Luckily dd gets a hot meal at nursery and I can heat up a ready meal at work, but otherwise we live off salads, sandwiches, crisps and cereal.

Bit of a shame we spent ridiculous money on Covid.

Covid has exacerbated it but this was coming either way. The policy of QE has devalued wages & we had only just started recovering from the 08 crash in 2018 but a legacy of that was wage stagnation & no investment.

I’ve read predictions of £3,500 come October because of current situation.

Who knows?

As an Australian I’m not an expert in UK heating but the one thing I noticed every time I’ve visited the UK (and most other European countries) is how high the temperature is inside in winter. Most of the time the first thing I do when I get to a hotel room is turn the heat down. It’s stifling!

Perhaps this is the result of my frugal upbringing but I’ve always only used heating or cooling when really needed. Now my house is probably too far on the other end of the spectrum. One gas heater in my living room and single glazed, old, wooden framed windows. Winter overnight temperatures get down to single digits where I am. I’m not suggesting everyone live like this but there must be a happy medium. Put a jumper on and put a rug over you when you watch TV. Turn the heating temperature down a bit.

Martin Lewis is talking about this now on itv

Electric blanket has helped stop me putting the heating on

I have been advised by my power company that my monthly DD is going up from 247 to 395. I cant switch as their isnt any cheaper options

The Government urgently needs to do something about this. If they don’t then families are going to end up homeless. It’s not just energy costs that are rising - it’s everything else. Even rental prices are rocketing - a 2 bed flat in my town used to cost around £400 in rent. They are now advertising for around £1000 per month - this is outside of London in a rural town. There isn’t enough social/ affordable housing stock to cater all these families who will end up homeless as a result of this. And I have to say Im very underwhelmed with what Labour are offering to do with a one-off windfall tax on energy firms. It does not reach far enough. This needs to be handled with the same urgency as the Covid pandemic. Countries need to work together. The prices per the cap may seem high but in reality the actual prices are 5x that of the price cap which is why so many companies suddenly went out of business.

I hope the councils and such places will think about the lightening of monuments in cities. In my city its insane how much electricity is wasted that way. Huge reflectors beaming well into the air. Its been worrying me for a long time. /Not mentioning the amount of killed insects etc./ Its time the world stops being ever so wasteful.

why are we still paying the 5% VAT on fuel? Surely this should be the first thing to go

@Cheesecakeandwineinasuitcase

The Government urgently needs to do something about this. If they don’t then families are going to end up homeless. It’s not just energy costs that are rising - it’s everything else. Even rental prices are rocketing - a 2 bed flat in my town used to cost around £400 in rent. They are now advertising for around £1000 per month - this is outside of London in a rural town. There isn’t enough social/ affordable housing stock to cater all these families who will end up homeless as a result of this. And I have to say Im very underwhelmed with what Labour are offering to do with a one-off windfall tax on energy firms. It does not reach far enough. This needs to be handled with the same urgency as the Covid pandemic. Countries need to work together. The prices per the cap may seem high but in reality the actual prices are 5x that of the price cap which is why so many companies suddenly went out of business.

And half the posters on mumsnet seem to own second and third properties to rent out and don't see it as a problem or part of the problem why house prices have risen hugely in recent years.

I can't see many people having any Christmas lights outside this year.

@1dayatatime

Boris has said that he will ban Russian oil by the end of 2022 but not gas. Putin has said that if Russian oil is embargoed then he will shut off gas supplies to Europe.

Russia currently supplies 40% of Europe's gas. If this is shut in then it won't just be a question of price it will be a problem of no gas availability at all which in turn will close down gas fired power stations (42% of power production is from gas fired stations) which will mean blackouts.

If only the UK had reserves of oil and gas in their national waters that they could exploit. And shale gas onshore.

Oh, hang on a minute ...

Britain's shale gas wells to be sealed.

Is it meant to go up again in oct?

@bluetongue - as an NZer I had been thinking the same. I only heat my living room in winter, many of us still have single glazing, and I certainly would not expect to wander around in a tee shirt inside in winter! I only use the air con when it's really hot, and for a short time, and in winter I prefer to use an electric heater, which I sit in front of. Bathroom and bedrooms are freezing - but I'm toasty warm in bed.

I am so bored of people saying that energy companies are not making significant profits. They make billions in profit and even if they do invest 50% in green energy (something from another thread) they are doing very very well. The cost of producing energy has not increased 150% - it’s just capitalism in action - profiteering - in this country with access to natural gas, wave & wind if properly harassed there is no reason other than rich people wanting to be richer that it should be this way. It’s feudal

God knows. My thinking is they will say what Biden said today. It’s war and we have to stomach rising costs. We have been thinking what we can do to limit our use of energy and I will be honest, not a lot springs to mind.

It's shit. I pay only for what I use anyway. I can't afford to spend more on energy than I do; I rebudgeted already with the last increases. I can only cut back on energy use and I use far less than anyone else I know already. We already have 3 or 4 layers, hot water bottles, no tumble drying and I have limited lights and cooking fuel. My house is rarely above 16 degrees unless it's a summer heatwave.

I grew up with 1 room heated. Ice on the windows (and sometimes the floor!) and damp. Now, I can't even have the one hot bloody room from a fire. I vividly remember that as the saving grace. And we'll have wet fucking feet all winter because I won't be able to dry our shoes.

Arghh harnessed

The gap between the rich and poor just gets wider. I wonder if they will tax the rich more

I fear we are sleepwalking into a disaster.

@bluetongue

As an Australian I’m not an expert in UK heating but the one thing I noticed every time I’ve visited the UK (and most other European countries) is how high the temperature is inside in winter. Most of the time the first thing I do when I get to a hotel room is turn the heat down. It’s stifling!

Perhaps this is the result of my frugal upbringing but I’ve always only used heating or cooling when really needed. Now my house is probably too far on the other end of the spectrum. One gas heater in my living room and single glazed, old, wooden framed windows. Winter overnight temperatures get down to single digits where I am. I’m not suggesting everyone live like this but there must be a happy medium. Put a jumper on and put a rug over you when you watch TV. Turn the heating temperature down a bit.

Ah! Hotels is because they shove the heating on to warm up a room that might have been empty for a day or so. They often have movement sensors or only come on for short busrts whilst the key is not in the room. DH has often moaned about hotels that forget because the rooms just don't warm up all that quickly and, as he works outsde in the cold, wet and mud he wants a warm room - and the often tepid only showers don't help!

And UK cold is often wet and cold. Single digit and well below (minus 2 - 6 recently) plus a wet atmosphere makes for added misery. It's also why we don't manage ice very well. Compare us to other countries who manage all sorts of depths of frozeness and we are shite. Until you remember that we are on the edge of the temperate zone and have more water and temperature fluctuations than many of those countries.

Sometimes there are real reasons for the differences.

I only have the heating on for an hour in the evening. I don’t really want to and don’t think in 2022 ANYONE should have to go back to seeing their breath indoors and their arse cheeks sticking to the toilet seat. I don’t think in a country as rich as the U.K. parents should be having to make a choice of which room gets heated this evening.

This government is chronically mismanaging everything to the detriment of the ordinary person, it is a disgrace.

There are going to be families up and down this country living in cold, damp homes, having to use food banks while the likes of Boris and his cronies recarpet their second homes in silk and velvet at the tax payers expense. An absolute disgrace.

The gap between the rich and poor just gets wider

yep

I wonder if they will tax the rich more

They will but not the rich, rich if that makes sense.