I was paying £61 a month in January from octopus for gas an electric , initially about £11pm electric £35 for gas etc rest made up with whatever bs they come up with, they wanted to put it up in April to about £220pm.
After complaining about it they suggested about £91, so I complained about that but said reluctantly I would, in between that offer and the actual April bill ( think it was march ) they sent another one saying it would go up to £120 pm.
I went on a rant again stating don’t give the bs about the war in Ukraine, years ago they made massive storage units to store liquidised gas from the middle East (West Wales I believe) which if memory serves was stated at the time was being to store gas if ever there was an energy crisis it would help keep prices for people stable . and I stated it was just a venture capitalist company exploiting any situation to milk the customers and the government.
The fact that the Tories are equally culpable Is another story, …rather than argue with me they said we’ll keep it at £61 pm for now and revisit in October, I have turned off the central heating and running hot water since January (shower still runs hot thank god)…but the fact that Martin Lewis states October and January is worrying as fuck.
I know someone who was paying similar to me and didn’t kick up a fuss and saw bills double to £120 pm …and it’s tragic that they are struggling now, fuck knows what she’ll be like come October/January.
Octopus is bleeding money, despite being one of the heatlhiest in that sector (largely due to their renewable portfolio which has worked as a hedge against all the other energy commodity price increases) - most of the other distributors have already failed.
Not sure what gas storage you would be thinking of (Iast major gas storage project in the UK was ~ 2010), but UK’s total storage capacity is tiny, somewhere around 1% of annual consumption - or about a day and a half in the winter. That is going to serve as a buffer to price increases, never was.
Fundamental fact of the matter is the bills cannot be capped to hold those numbers down. The UK can nationalize distribution, eliminate the VAT, whatever, but still faces the basic problem that energy is now too expensive in the global and European markets for far, far too many UK households. Limiting the growth of the cap has just created an oligopoly, no one is pouring capital into energy distribution in the UK now. No one is going to sell cheap gas to the UK, and the world market price is what is driving this crisis. Don’t pay it, and the Norwegian gas just goes elsewhere. No Norwegian gas, and the UK gas either is allocated with a price, or rationing. Good luck with that.
At some point, someone in the UK will have to admit that in the 2x2 matrix of supply-demand increase-decrease, they missed a box, and a lot of struggling people are now screwed. There is no across-the-board solution for this in the near-term, which is what the Tories desperately want. There just isn’t any other immediate possibility than a targeted assistance program for the most needy (which further increases the costs for all others), while the entire economy makes a shift to reduce that gas exposure. But as far as I can tell, English politics won’t get there without being dragged kicking and screaming.
The oil tank will get filled this September and then there will be a strict jumper policy. Those price cap figures are scary. I’m far from happy about our current electricity bill as it is.
Starmer is certainly walking a tightrope I feel. He can’t announce policies 2 years out from an election but he also needs to appeal to the centre ground. you don’t win a GE in the UK without claiming the centre ground.
But every day he follows this line he’s bleeding support from people begging to know what he can do for them, and what he stands for.
I don’t think this is really the issue. The real problem for him is those on the left trying to destabilise him. We expect the Conservatives, and those in the media friendly to them, to do their best to disrupt his messaging but it is also happening frequently by those loyal to Corbyn,
Calling for Starmer to be harassed and filmed is bad enough, but to also go on a two minute rant calling anyone that supports him as being deluded, tedious, ridiculous waitrose shoppers with Stockholm syndrome is not a way to win friends
Totally disagree about this. Everything I heard about Starmer from people within the Labour Party who are close to him is that he fully understands and is committed to fairness and equity.
Any suggestion that he is as ambivalent towards poverty as Johnson, Sunak or Truss is utter nonsense.
His problem is that he is far, far too cautious and pragmatic to articulate the policies that are necessary
You know, I’ve been thinking maybe burning fossil fuels isn’t the best idea?
In all seriousness, the UK could do a lot worse than to get serious about home insulation. If Energy prices are just high now, we all need to be using much less of it.
Also tariffs need to be staggered. Cheap basic needs, absolutely hammer excessive use. If people want patio heaters and hot tubs they should be absolutely hammered for that.
