Excuses not good enough

50Twuncle

When I heard the governments answer to energy price rises - it made me sick...
"USE PRICE COMPARISON SITES - THIS WILL SAVE YOU MONEY"
Don't they know that this is pointless ? Once one energy company raises its prices - they all follow like sheep ?
Why can't the government impose no price rises ?
Sorry - but it is about time that one company stood up against the bullying big boys and said "NO MORE PRICE RISES"
This would gain it a huge number of loyal customers and would teach the others a lesson
So come on small companies - be brave and do the right thing... fix prices and stick with them - or preferably drop prices 10%...

tberry6686

Drop prices by 10% ?

Considering they currently make a profit of between 5 and 7% from supplying gas and electricity this is not possible. The fact of the matter is that in this country fuel prices are relatively cheap compared to many parts of europe.

The only way's that prices can be frozen is if the energy companies cease investing in infrastructure which would mean blackouts fairly rapidly or the green subsidies are removed.

chanz4

loft installation is not free

penrhyn

You should be pleased to pay more for your energy, it encourages you to use less, and is what the ecoloons want.
Where do you think the small companies get their gas and electricity from, they are not immune from world energy prices.

vassa

tberry6686 wrote: »

Drop prices by 10% ?

Considering they currently make a profit of between 5 and 7% from supplying gas and electricity this is not possible. The fact of the matter is that in this country fuel prices are relatively cheap compared to many parts of europe.

The only way's that prices can be frozen is if the energy companies cease investing in infrastructure which would mean blackouts fairly rapidly or the green subsidies are removed.

Centrica make more than a billion pounds a year net profit, my heart bleeds for them.

I really don't get the people that palm off rubbish services or high prices or poor government by reeling off the old cop out 'well it's worse elsewhere'. Doesn't cut it.

tberry6686

vassa wrote: »

Centrica make more than a billion pounds a year net profit, my heart bleeds for them.

I really don't get the people that palm off rubbish services or high prices or poor government by reeling off the old cop out 'well it's worse elsewhere'. Doesn't cut it.

Most of Centrica's profit comes from getting the gas out of the ground and selling it on the open markets so is irrelevant unless you think they should supply gas and electricity to retail customers at a loss.

vassa

tberry6686 wrote: »

Most of Centrica's profit comes from getting the gas out of the ground and selling it on the open markets so is irrelevant unless you think they should supply gas and electricity to retail customers at a loss.

So they don't profit off that '5-7%' you were talking about then? They could drop their profit margin to 1% and would still be rolling in it.

tberry6686

vassa wrote: »

So they don't profit off that '5-7%' you were talking about then? They could drop their profit margin to 1% and would still be rolling in it.

1% profit would mean no investment in the supply and generating side as there would be no benefit for the companies concerned and would leave no leeway when the market prices for gas and electricity increase.

5-7% profit for a retailer is actually pretty low. your local shop will have a markup of over 20% on most things, should they only be allowed 1% as well. The fact is energy is not cheap and will not get any cheaper.

There is a way to cut the prices though. Get rid of the subsidies for so called green generation - should make a nice 10% cut easily

JJ_Egan

France Germany produce their own power and ignore EU rules .

MillicentBystander

tberry6686 wrote: »

1% profit would mean no investment in the supply and generating side as there would be no benefit for the companies concerned and would leave no leeway when the market prices for gas and electricity increase.

5-7% profit for a retailer is actually pretty low. your local shop will have a markup of over 20% on most things, should they only be allowed 1% as well. The fact is energy is not cheap and will not get any cheaper.

There is a way to cut the prices though. Get rid of the subsidies for so called green generation - should make a nice 10% cut easily

You seem to have difficulty differentiating between 'profit' and 'mark up'. Plus the energy companies get generous tax allowances for investing in green energy initiatives - then promptly charge their customers for the capital cost. Not a bad business to be in all told. Millions of available customers, not any real competition then just price your product (a product your company actually wholesales anyway) to make £50 per household. No stresses, no strains, no cost cutting required (BG's last computer system reportedly cost £500 MILLION yet was so poor they sued the suppliers!). Yeah, it's such a hard business that 4 of the Big 6 have been swallowed up by foreign companies. Did we force these companies to buy our companies??

tberry6686

MillicentBystander wrote: »

You seem to have difficulty differentiating between 'profit' and 'mark up'.

Poor choice of phrase on my part. Should have said profit