To think that very few people can manage £4200 energy bills

[Butterflyfluff]

news.sky.com/story/energy-bills-forecast-to-rise-even-higher-than-previously-thought-12668906

This simply isn’t manageable for the majority of people.

Where’s this going to end?

Johnson has just come out form a meeting with energy bosses to say that he's going to... do fuck all, essentially:

twitter.com/KevinASchofield/status/1557704636877996032

I just don't know where they think this money will come from, we have decided that we won't use the heating this winter and will limit hot meals otherwise we won't be able to afford food anyway so won't need to cook it!

@BigWoollyJumpers I wouldn't bet on that...
www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/08/08/ftse-100-markets-live-news-inflation-interest-cost-living/

I also wouldn't be too sure that Norway will prioritise UK over Germany/EU IF gas supplies are tight this winter, contract or no.

DH has just tried to explain to me why the current projections for costs are wrong. Now, bear with. The recent projections by two consultancies, are basing their annual costs on monthly pricing, and annualising. So, if the price in Jan is £500 per month, they are annualising that to £6k per year. But that doesn't take into account usage declining into the summer months. So it won't be £500 per month all year....... several other consultancies have issues with these projections. As with Covid, it's another case of statistics and manipulation to suit an agenda. We shall see how it all comes out in the wash. They may be right, but it does make for better headlines to show worse case scenarios.

No-one's said it's going to be over 6k a year. 4.5k is the current prediction (for some households).

That's electricity not gas. We don't get much electricity from Norway,.

If that's what they are doing, they are being very stupid.

Even I know not to do that when working out my yearly costs.

Were the Cornwall Insight predictions in excess of the cap announced a year ago, in 2021?

Pls read the link before replying.

I also read that article. It seems as Boris view is that if he gets involved then he will be accused of tying the hands of the next PM.

Plus given he is leaving soon the whole energy crisis is someone else's problem not his - namely the next PM and the entire UK population struggling with heating and eating.

@BigWoollyJumpers Thats not what they are saying though! Its predicted annual bills could go as high as £4200 from January, but the cost for January could be £500 out of that £4200.

£500 January bill

This quote from the above article explains:
She said that while many households can spread out their higher winter bills over the year, prepayment households – often the most vulnerable – are looking at charges of ‘at least £434 in December and more than £500 in January

And the scary thing is, this article before the latest predictions of 82% rise in October :(

Yea.

The cap will go up in October by another 82% (predicted).

Then go up again in Jan by another 19% on top of that.

And then maybe again next April on top of that....

Have been busy this morning but it seems like the meeting went something like this:

Government: Please can you lower the energy bills a bit
Big energy companies: Nah -our profits are amazing-
Government: OK, van you just have a little tink about it then, no worries if not

That about right?

Woah, typos! More like:

Government: Please can you lower the energy bills a bit?
Big energy companies: Nah -our profits are amazing-
Government: OK, can you just have a little think about it then? No worries if not!

Truss is estimated to be worth £8.4 million Claire £4.99 accessories my arse. She kept that quiet.
moneytransfers.com/news/content/the-net-worths-of-the-potential-next-tory-leaders

I was just reading in the daily mirror that it said that prices will rise to £5000 in coming months.
I'm seriously thinking of going out and looking around shops without buying a thing. I'm a low user of both electric and gas but the lowest that I could use in 24 hours will be around 1.9 kWh per day on electric and around 1.4 kWh of gas.
I would involve making a flask of tea and a few sandwiches for the time I'm out.

Your bills will REALLY not be anywhere close to average user bill.
Low users will still see prices rise, but it will not be thousands

UK help to consumers is 15 billion, Germany 60b, France 44b, Italy 46b.

Bit like our 5p cut in duty compared to France's 15p.

@vera99 Why they really don't care.

UK help is still being worked on. As I say, Johnson isn’t going to implement something when he’s going out the door. So we shall see.

Either way, the taxpayers are paying for this. None of the help any nation is giving is coming from some benign power that has spare change. It will come from other expenditure. There is only so much money, therefore, what do we cut to finance these subsidies? Schools? Council services? Healthcare? The roads?

It's great that a leadership contest means you don't have functioning government for 2 months.

Yup, they don't give a shit - bills for them are chump change you might find in an old jacket you've kept in the wardrobe. How much can they chuck to the paupers to stop them from rioting or mass non-payment and don't forget the magic dust "Keep Brexit Safe".

Message to the barely there silvers at the hustings don't let that horrible Mr Corbyn get in and we.know.what.a.woman.is - pause for huge applause. Cue patriotic music and as many union jacks as you can stuff into the shot.

One almost sees Sunak trashing her so-called economic approach as he knows she will fall before too long and he can rush saviour like into that vacuum. Perpetual revolution at the top of the Tories but the song remains the same.

www.theguardian.com/business/2022/aug/11/more-than-100000-people-join-dont-pay-uk-to-protest-against-price-rises

@SleeplessInEngland because the fuckers had to defenestrate their lying, corrupt criminal leader who got all the "big calls right". Ah....

When you say "worked on", I think what you mean is "improvised on the hoof whilst they balance doing as little as they can get away with whilst continually reassessing as national fury slowly builds".

They'll fold. It's the MO of this government. Zero vision, shallow thinking, reactive to their core.

@vera99

Regardless of how many people sign up to "The Don't Pay" campaign the numbers will be dwarfed by many more people in the "I always used to pay but I am genuinely unable to pay because I simply don't have the money to do so"

It all adds up to the same thing as customers unable (or in the case of " Don't Pay" unwilling) to pay their energy suppliers and a massive increase in debt owed.

The courts will be unable to process all these outstanding debts plus cutting off people's heating and electricity or forcing a prepayment meeting (which if you can't afford to prepay is the same as cutting them off) will cause social uproar, dismal headlines and is hardly a vote winner.

Equally the energy suppliers will be faced with a serious cash flow crisis with massive debt owed to them and then unable to find the money to pay the high wholesale prices for gas and electricity for those customers that do pay or cannot pay but haven't been cut off yet. As a result many energy suppliers will go bust.

Fair enough.

However, if the economy goes into meltdown because people have no spending power, then unemployment rises, businesses fail, taxes fall etc etc all the things you list get cut back, then there is the human cost.

The monies other countries are spending, will find its way back into the economy and hence tax take, it doesn't get spirited away to the Cayman Is.

I expect the Tories to do the least possible, just enough to stop too many headlines of "Pensioner/Mum of 3 found frozen to death" but no more.