Coal prices

Snow_Dog

Was around late the other morning and heard a chainsaw, turns out a neighbour was having a tree taken down, asked the landscapers and they happily dropped off the trunk and branches on the drive along with another tree they were doing locally.

Bonza. :-) Who needs coal (PS bought 1/4 tonne of coal earlier in year and split around family at £6.25/25kg)

SEE

andygo999 wrote: »

Hi, I don't think there is. I've just emailed this to the Office of Fair Trading. Don't know if they'll do anything....hard to prove collusion...


[EMAIL="enquiries@oft.gov.uk"]enquiries@oft.gsi.gov.uk[/EMAIL]
Could you tell me if anyone is investigating the appalling rise in the price of coal to householders in the UK.
It's increased from around £100 a tonne in 2006 to £300 a tonne today (depending on what type you order).
There aren't that many coal producers and they all seem to be putting up prices.
A number of coal producers have published their annual reports - which show the AVERAGE price for a tonne of coal is just £38.
http://www.energybuild.co.uk/downloads/EnergyBuild_AR2008.pdf
http://www.ath.co.uk/html/investor_information/latest_results.html
That figure includes coal supplied to power stations - and obviously they will pay less.
But why should domestic users be paying almost 10 times as much for their coal, and why isn't there a regulatory body overseeing the price of domestic coal.
I've already spoken to Ofgem and they only cover gas and electricity.
Could you also tell me if the OfT is going to refer the coal producers to the Monopolies Commission for price fixing.

Bravo:beer: Perhaps a petition might embarrass them?

a_q

Just been to one of my local coal merchants to pick up a few bags, but they don't expect the price to come back down until the summer. When I asked them about the bulk price coming down months ago they reckoned someone up the chain was making lots of money but it wan't them for sure!

It will take someone with the clout of the monopolies commission to get into the commercial contracts and find out who's keeping the price raised. In the mean time I am mostly burning wood and whatever else will go up the stove pipe!

SEE

a_q wrote: »

Just been to one of my local coal merchants to pick up a few bags, but they don't expect the price to come back down until the summer. When I asked them about the bulk price coming down months ago they reckoned someone up the chain was making lots of money but it wan't them for sure!

It will take someone with the clout of the monopolies commission to get into the commercial contracts and find out who's keeping the price raised. In the mean time I am mostly burning wood and whatever else will go up the stove pipe!

Someone is definately being greedy somewhere, and with Russia messing about its about to push gas prices up again. I don't know what many families are going to do. There must be some official body who will listen. I think I'll start making some phonecalls.

ventureuk

My local coal merchant has put his prices up by almost 10% within the last week, looking online many suppliers have done the same. No doubt down to the Russians and the potential for the gas crisis to head here.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article5469834.ece

Shopped around and was still able to get six 25kg bags of smokeless anthracite cobs for £9 each just in case, most are above £10 now.

It's roaring away with logs at the moment and hasn't been out for the last two weeks, central heating set to 15% output all the downstairs radiators turned off with the upstairs just airing the rooms for a couple of hours in the morning and at night.

Picked up a petrol chainsaw for £50 from Tesco in the sale so it's a summer of chumping for me.

SEE

I just found this great site on all things coal.
http://alacrawiki.com/index.php?title=Coal

SEE

I've just called the 'The Office for Trading'
08457 224499 then press 1 to be put through to your region, and horror of horrors COAL IS NOT COVERED BY ANY TRADING STANDARDS:eek: They can charge what they like:eek: They told me to write to my MP to see if fixed pricing could be raised in the houses of Parliament:mad: I think we need an online Downing street petition.

A._Badger

Well done, SEE that was a good effort!

Sadly, I can't see most MPs giving a damn.

SEE

A._Badger wrote: »

Well done, SEE that was a good effort!

Sadly, I can't see most MPs giving a damn.

Pass it around:beer:


http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Coal--Prices/

SEE

The cheapest smokeless coal I can find in the West Mids is from 'Charlton Whitehouse' at £17 per 50kg bag. The same coal from 'CPL' the largest distributor in Britain is £22.05 the greedy beggars:mad: How come a small firm can do it cheaper than those who actually manufacter the stuff