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Gas and Electricity Prices

Like many on this forum, I well remember the power cuts in the UK during the 1970’s and having to eat evening meals via candlelight. The Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, has stated today in Parliament that there is no question of the UK going back to the three day week of the 1970’s. What with food shortages and rocketing energy prices, I’m rather of the mind that we are heading into something similar to a Winter of Discontent. What do others think?
 
in 2010 my joint utility bill was 55 quid a month and I could have my heating on as and when i liked with more or less impunity. Since 2010 both my main comps use about 1/2 the power they used to, my main HiFi amps use less than 1/5 they used to and everything that can be "energy saving" is. My Utility bills are now 120 quid a month and British gas want 140 quid. I checked the price comparison sites and the deals they offer range from 157 quid a month to 197 quid a month. In short, some energy companies, in little more than a decade, wish to charge me almost 4 times the amount for less usage.
 
For the past 15 years living here we've paid an average of £1200 dual fuel. We're with Octopus and our fixed rate deal expires next week.

We recently had smart meters installed so I'm now watching that energy monitor display with more than an avid interest. £2 a day since they were installed but the heating hasn't been on.
 
Channel 4 news just had a good piece on the gas problem, in short when the old existing storage was scrapped the gov decided not to step in but trusted the market to do the right thing. Did they?, well the UK gas storage is now just 2% of our needs so we have to buy (pay) the new going rate for all our gas. The prices have been low and falling for 3 or 4 years (You noticed that in your bills, didn't you?) which is why there are soo many new suppliers who jumped in and gambled that prices would continue to be low or even fall which is why they are now collapsing.
 
Don’t worry, things are looking pretty shaky in the Chinese property market which could be big enough to cause the global house of cards to tumble. A serious downturn in global economic activity usually dampens down energy prices.
 
We recently had smart meters installed so I'm now watching that energy monitor display with more than an avid interest.
They installed a smart meter in my flat back in May, then failed to configure either it or their systems, so it's not doing anything the old one didn't. After two months and some phone calls, they finally fixed their side to allow manual meter readings like they used to. Meanwhile, they "estimated" my monthly usage being double what it's ever been and billed me accordingly. Bloody criminals, all of them.
 
Who's they? Both meters were registered to my existing tariff with Octopus within an hour. Quite impressed with that if truth be told. Was expecting much worse.
 
Bit of a shocker to see how many of these fly by night utilities companies there are in the market. Jeez. There used to be like 5 main companies but now there's a whole industry based on what is little more than a spread betting operation.

Squid's In?
 
Their usual tactic is to offer cheap 12-month tariffs for new customers, then silently switch them to something quite insane. That's why _changing_ provider every year gives the lowest bills. It's impossible to simply stick with a cheap one.
 
From my current energy supplier.

We do not have confidence in the Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, to act in a way which will foster a fair environment for competitive energy rates and keep people employed in the industry. In recent news, he has had meetings with Ofgem and large energy suppliers - neglecting smaller suppliers who are often the ones to bring fair competition and innovation to the market.

We're hoping you can offer some support to help us hold the large players within the energy industry to account, who have created a climate where hundreds of jobs have already been lost this year and thousands more could go over the winter period.

Kwarteng said that small firms would be allowed to go bankrupt, with their customers auctioned off to the company prepared to offer them the cheapest rate (Sky News, 2021). This disregard for employees who work across the industry at smaller firms leads us to believe that he is unfit for his current role and further action is needed to ensure that the energy market has adequate support.

Ofgem made Kwarteng aware of the ongoing pressure to energy suppliers on 26th March 2020 but his disregard for the issues and lack of willingness to create support for the industry has resulted in a large increase in the cost of powering homes and hundreds of job losses.

We all need energy to power our homes and having a market with a range of competitors has allowed everyone to access fairer prices. It's too late for us but by signing this petition you can help to raise these issues and ensure the sector stays competitive.

Please don't let the energy market turn back into the Big Six inflating prices, sign the petition today.
 
I wouldn’t.
It’s as if capitalism is great when we are making a mint but now we are failing can we have a tax payer funded bale out please.
 
When a current govt minister states "there is absolutely no question of xxxx" I start to get quite worried...
xxxx in this instance being the lights going out.

I've bought candles and a couple of gas bottles for the BBQ...
 
Bit of a shocker to see how many of these fly by night utilities companies there are in the market. Jeez. There used to be like 5 main companies but now there's a whole industry based on what is little more than a spread betting operation.

Squid's In?

Let’s face it, these smaller providers shouldn’t be in existence, and won’t be for much longer. They’ve proven they can’t operate in global energy markets, they simply don’t have the balance sheets to make a wrong call. The big players won’t want the bankrupt supplier customers in the short term. The price cap is below the current gas price. Why would they want more customers who are going to burn their finite hedged supply? The price cap is going to have to be increased / lifted until wholesale prices fall.
 


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