Energy Price Cap to hit nearly £7000, what is the chance they will hit £10k by end of 2023?

[onthefencesitter]

I think it's extremely likely esp if Putin cuts off Nord Stream. Thoughts?

The standing charge is the problem. Massive bills even when using minimal energy.

The standing charge is the problem. Massive bills even when using minimal energy. That’s barely going up in October though isn’t it? So actually the increase will presumably be more than 80% in unit prices but much less in standing charge which benefits lower users and penalises high users?

Tony Blair was arguably the worst Prime Minister of this country in the last 100 years. He did absolutely nothing other than spend money the country was already earning. He planned for absolutely nothing and his legacy is shocking bad. Anyone can spend money that the economy is already earning, increasing public spending is not some work of genius that only smart people do.

Yes @WishyFishy. We've done the kilowatt per hour calculation based on our actual usage.

We are a firmly average use household. Our bills have tracked alongside the energy cap's average for a couple of years. When average cost was £1200 a year we were paying £100 a month.

Most of the last few years the price cap was about £1200, in April it went up to £1,971, but our direct debit didn't go up because we had a small surplus and the rise was only 25%. Yesterday it went up to £3,549, in January it's expected to be £5,386, and then go up to about £7k in April. More in October.

The average energy bill for the four weeks of January alone is expected to be £700 for an average user on dual fuel. Similar in February

I believe there is a very rough calculator on Martin Lewis's site, but it's only for today's rise, not January's and April's.

£250 a month might get you through the next three months but it's nowhere near enough for the next 12.

P.S. the energy companies know they're getting £400 per household over the next six months. The new direct debit amounts factor that in. So our is £500 per month plus the £67 a month they get from the government.

Yeah. The energy companies will be getting all the money back they have given to the government to help with this latest crisis once it's all credited to our accounts because it will all be swallowed up by January in time to put it up again.
It's very clever really !

Some people have said they may spend the day in shops, shopping centres, libraries etc. to save on heating their homes. They should take note of the latest rules introduced by the German Government.

Public buildings (except hospitals) must hot be heated to a temperature above 19C (which may be lowered if the situation persists) and should not heat corridors and foyers at all. Shop doors must be shut at all times. Shop fronts at night and any display lighting must be turned off. Heating of private swimming pools has been banned. They are also discussing the possibility that "communal heating" such as in blocks that share a boiler that is landlord controlled may also be ordered to lower the maximum temperature.

You may end up leaving your cold home to go to a cold shop or library.

There are a lot of pensioners where my parents live, and the library is tiny and doesn't really have seating. I don't see how that's going to work as a "warm hub". The church hall has seating, and the facility for hot drinks, but is notoriously draughty. If about 2% of the local pensioners wanted to use them that would be far too many.

There was an article the other day saying that they might not be as feasible as previously thought. Pity if so although they would have taken years to come online regardless.

Where the fuck is our government?

Wow, that's a prophetic article. Shame no government listened to it. Labour, Tory or Coalition.

It was hard to imagine back then because we'd never had it so good.

In Tony Blair's 2007 resignation speech he said:

Ask when you last had to wait a year or more on a hospital waiting list, or heard of pensioners freezing to death in the winter unable to heat their homes.

It was a different time.

However, Ed Miliband's 2015 manifesto was full of measures to make this country energy secure, to insulate houses and invest in renewables.

Jeremy Corbyn planned to renationalise energy.

The issue hasn't exactly been ignored.

worth watching

I think the govt will have to step in long before then. It’s just not going to be doable for anyone.

We have to invest in forms of energy that don’t depend on Russian oil sooner or later.

But also, it can’t be left to ordinary people and businesses to take this hit. We need to either renationalise the energy companies, or tax some of their massive profits to pay for it.

sucessove government and voters have viewed energy security as it will cost x and current energy prices are Y therefore payback time not worth it, not factoring in things like geopolitics, volatile markets, or even peak oil impacts

This is the beginning of the end for hospitality. They'd survived Covid but can't survive this. Most businesses will close.

However, Ed Miliband's 2015 manifesto was full of measures to make this country energy secure, to insulate houses and invest in renewables.

Yeah but look how he ate that bacon sandwich. Vote for stability with Dave Cameron, not chaos with Red Ed.

Will the government have to help the factories with their energy bills that make the food and goods that we all need?
I often think of public buildings like schools etc but these huge factories must also use a ton of energy and are really important too.
Can they absorb the costs ?

The plans have existed for decades, the trouble is that since we recovered from 2008 we have had a government for the last 12 years that has a lot of anti Green policy people in it, so energy security, solar panels on public buildings like schools, more wind and tidal etc has all been on the back burner,