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Devastating blow for households in fuel poverty

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  • Joyful
    Joyful Posts: 2,429 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Of course the majority of customers for all suppliers never need to call. They pay their bills on time and have no problems. The people on here posting from the industry know that those that do have problems ie can't/won't pay are the ones who call. I have spoken to people recently who get their allowance and immediately put it on the prepayment meter so that they do not have to worry about the heating. I have also spoke to people in the past who could not afford a monthly amount but knowing the allowance was due I reduced it on condition they paid this into their payment plan.

    Of course Companies should help but customers must also help themselves. If they are given money to stop them getting cold they cannot complain if they do not then use it for that. If you are able to pay monthly and have no problems then this is not an issue for you but there are many people who do not do this.
    Self Employed, Running my Dream Jobs
  • bryanb
    bryanb Posts: 5,030 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Plushchris wrote: »
    So what you are saying is you can afford your bills anyway and just spend your WFA on other things?

    You could look at it that way, or you could look at it that the WFA is in the bank and pays the DDs for the following year.
    Once money goes into the bank it loses it's identity, perhaps we should return to the days of money in teapots/ behind the clock. ie ringfenced for a particular bill.
    This is an open forum, anyone can post and I just did !
  • dogshome
    dogshome Posts: 3,878 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Does anyone else get the same bad vibes about the relationship between the Utilites and the present Govt. as I do.
    We started off with privatisation by the Tories - the phrase used at the time was "Selling the family jewels" - but at least they made a decent job of of dividing up and regulating the industry. The generating Co's had to compete with one another on price to supply the distributors who were barred from generating power, and Ofgem vetted every single price increase proposed by the Distributors.
    Then came the changes by New Labour - The distributors were allowed to generate power, which they rushed into with comparativly cheap to build Gas Fired power stations that caused chaos in the Generating Industry to the point that wholesale prices collapsed and Power Stations were mothballed - though the retail customers didn't see any price reductions - Scottish Power entered 'Windfall Profits' on their Annual Report.
    At the point of this change Britains own gas supplies were predicted to be more than sufficient until 2020, but quickly diminished to the point of needing gas imports 12 years earlier.
    Instead of Ofgem being a referee with a seriously large Red Card, 'Competition' is now supposed to regulate prices amongst what were 15 distributors, now reduced to just 6, and Ofgem's authority has been reduced to comments of ' We have no power to act in this matter' when faced a plethora of customer complaints.
    2008 marked not a milestone, but a gravestone on the road to our Elected Repesentatives acting on behalf of the common people - For almost 2 years Ofgem were putting out press releases assuring us that price regulation by 'competition' was working, whilst at the same time Energywatch, the recipient of customer complaints,
    was saying that it wasn't.
    So what does a Govt. do when it's two major regulating agencies are in disageement as to the population getting a fair deal on 'must have' commodities ?
    It disbands Energywatch with it's loud voice and big clout in the media, and replaces it with four smaller agencies to deal directly with complaints, each of which has a voice hardly louder than a whisper and deals only with particular types of problems.
    This legislation seems to be so irrational that for me it creates a distinctly nasty smell, but I'm not sure if it's the odour of a behind-closed-doors deal by Whitehall to reduce the UK's carbon footprint by making light and heat so expensive that we will all sit and freeze in the dark, or maybe it's a whiff an Industry lobby in Westminster that is so powerful that the Govt.has become a fawning spaniel, and when one talks of 'Power', it's usually another name for money.
  • mech_2
    mech_2 Posts: 620 Forumite
    dogshome wrote: »
    We started off with privatisation by the Tories - the phrase used at the time was "Selling the family jewels" - but at least they made a decent job of of dividing up and regulating the industry.

    [...]

    Then came the changes by New Labour - The distributors were allowed to generate power, which they rushed into with comparativly cheap to build Gas Fired power stations that caused chaos in the Generating Industry to the point that wholesale prices collapsed and Power Stations were mothballed

    [...]

    At the point of this change Britains own gas supplies were predicted to be more than sufficient until 2020, but quickly diminished to the point of needing gas imports 12 years earlier.

    This is all off-topic. Clearly you're a Tory supporter and wish to hijack the thread for party political purposes. For a start the 'dash for gas' was on the Tories' watch in the early 90s.

    The 'life expectancy' of UK gas reserves in 1997 was 22 years, pointing to 2019. In 2007 it was 13 years, pointing to 2020. But these figure are calculated by dividing proven reserves by the current extraction rate so they're fairly meaningless except as compared to one another. Extraction rates will fall, so we'll still be pulling gas out of the ground well after 2020, it's just that it won't be enough to meet demand.
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,063 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Rampant Recycler
    dogshome wrote: »
    We started off with privatisation by the Tories - the phrase used at the time was "Selling the family jewels" - but at least they made a decent job of of dividing up and regulating the industry. The generating Co's had to compete with one another on price to supply the distributors who were barred from generating power, and Ofgem vetted every single price increase proposed by the Distributors.
    Then came the changes by New Labour - The distributors were allowed to generate power, which they rushed into with comparativly cheap to build Gas Fired power stations that caused chaos in the Generating Industry to the point that wholesale prices collapsed and Power Stations were mothballed - though the retail customers didn't see any price reductions - Scottish Power entered 'Windfall Profits' on their Annual Report.
    At the point of this change Britains own gas supplies were predicted to be more than sufficient until 2020, but quickly diminished to the point of needing gas imports 12 years earlier.
    Instead of Ofgem being a referee with a seriously large Red Card, 'Competition' is now supposed to regulate prices amongst what were 15 distributors, now reduced to just 6, and Ofgem's authority has been reduced to comments of ' We have no power to act in this matter' when faced a plethora of customer complaints.
    2008 marked not a milestone, but a gravestone on the road to our Elected Repesentatives acting on behalf of the common people - For almost 2 years Ofgem were putting out press releases assuring us that price regulation by 'competition' was working, whilst at the same time Energywatch, the recipient of customer complaints,
    was saying that it wasn't.
    So what does a Govt. do when it's two major regulating agencies are in disageement as to the population getting a fair deal on 'must have' commodities ?
    It disbands Energywatch with it's loud voice and big clout in the media, and replaces it with four smaller agencies to deal directly with complaints, each of which has a voice hardly louder than a whisper and deals only with particular types of problems.
    This legislation seems to be so irrational that for me it creates a distinctly nasty smell, but I'm not sure if it's the odour of a behind-closed-doors deal by Whitehall to reduce the UK's carbon footprint by making light and heat so expensive that we will all sit and freeze in the dark, or maybe it's a whiff an Industry lobby in Westminster that is so powerful that the Govt.has become a fawning spaniel, and when one talks of 'Power', it's usually another name for money.

    In pedantic mode the phrase used was 'Selling off the family silver'
    Ex UK prime minister Harold Macmillan criticised Margaret Thatcher's government for 'selling off the family silver' when they privatised various public utilities in the 1980s.

    Regarding Ofgem 'approving' all price increases, it was never the intent that this would be permanent.

    Ironically Ofwat still have that role of approving water charges, and the water companies are more profitable than gas and electricity companies.

    You are absolutely correct about UK 'looting' our gas reserves by building Gas Powered power stations. However it most certainly was not New Labour that instigated that policy(Labour only came to power in 1997). This policy was part of Maggies 'master plan' to end Britains dependance on coal and smash the power of the mining unions who had brought about the downfall of Ted Heath.

    The small companies who jumped onto the energy privatisation gravy train(as they thought) got out because it was simply not profitable. There are of course more distributers than "just 6" but the smaller companies like non profit making Ebico couldn't survive long term without Southern Electricity. Likewise UW with their tie in with NPower.

    In any case the profits from the big 6 distribution arms is small - £10s per customer.

    The more serious concern is their tie up with the energy producers; and that largely is a case of them driving up world energy prices.

    I do find it rather strange that you appear to absolve the Tories and blame Labour. The Tories were totally responsible(in the teeth of opposition from Labour and even many of their own supporters) for the privatisation of the public Utilities. The Acts they passed are the reason we have essential commodities supplied by private firms with no serious control.

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