Should the energy industry be renationalised?

MillicentBystander

We all know HS2 aint really going to happen so why not use the money we were supposedly going to spend on that white elephant and use it instead to rid the energy industry of shareholders, dividend payments, confusion marketing, etc etc and buy them out?

tori.k

I doubt that our bill's would be any cheaper under nationalisation since the biggest slice of the pie already goes to the Government in there tax's.
Domestic Water supply on the other hand should never of been sold when there was never a chance for fair competition.

Yorksport

Renationalisation would never happen and isn't the answer. Competition is and originally it worked-ish. I have 2 thoughts: one is that the debate which SSE and BG have stimulated by their disproportionate rises will be causing EDF, NPower and the rest to hold off on the increases they had planned (think of the PR benefits and customer inflow) and secondly, that in future we are unlikely to see the choreographed announcements which we have got used to. They will try to show that they are competing (First Utility have already said that they won't increase until March next year). I think too, that the pretty useless regulator will be pressured to stimulate the entry of new suppliers to the market so that the government can lay claim to increasing competition. In the meantime, use less and switch and switch again as the mood takes you.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Yorksport wrote: »

Renationalisation would never happen and isn't the answer. Competition is and originally it worked-ish. I have 2 thoughts: one is that the debate which SSE and BG have stimulated by their disproportionate rises will be causing EDF, NPower and the rest to hold off on the increases they had planned (think of the PR benefits and customer inflow) and secondly, that in future we are unlikely to see the choreographed announcements which we have got used to. They will try to show that they are competing (First Utility have already said that they won't increase until March next year). I think too, that the pretty useless regulator will be pressured to stimulate the entry of new suppliers to the market so that the government can lay claim to increasing competition. In the meantime, use less and switch and switch again as the mood takes you.

Clearly not as NPower announced it today!

Could it actually be, shock horror, that the companies are telling the truth, and the cost increases they are exposed to are necessitating the price rises?

Southend1

Yorksport wrote: »

Renationalisation would never happen and isn't the answer. Competition is and originally it worked-ish. I have 2 thoughts: one is that the debate which SSE and BG have stimulated by their disproportionate rises will be causing EDF, NPower and the rest to hold off on the increases they had planned (think of the PR benefits and customer inflow) and secondly, that in future we are unlikely to see the choreographed announcements which we have got used to. They will try to show that they are competing (First Utility have already said that they won't increase until March next year). I think too, that the pretty useless regulator will be pressured to stimulate the entry of new suppliers to the market so that the government can lay claim to increasing competition. In the meantime, use less and switch and switch again as the mood takes you.

I'm not sure this will happen. BBC are reporting that NPower is likely to announce price increases of over 10% this week. Because it's in the firms' interests to act as a cartel it would be very hard for even a strong regulator to infuse any real competition into the market.

Southend1

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

Clearly not as NPower announced it today!

Could it actually be, shock horror, that the companies are telling the truth, and the cost increases they are exposed to are necessitating the price rises?

It's hard to believe this though when the cost of energy is dictated by other parts of their own business.

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays

Southend1 wrote: »

It's hard to believe this though when the cost of energy is dictated by other parts of their own business.

Then allow them to sell energy to themselves at cheap prices. This, I'm sure would drive down residential prices. At the moment, as I'm sure you know, once energy is generated it is sold to the open market, where it is then "rebought" by the supplier.

It would also stop anyone other than the big 6 entering the market, which, apparently, is what people want.

Southend1

Bluebirdman_of_Alcathays wrote: »

Then allow them to sell energy to themselves at cheap prices. This, I'm sure would drive down residential prices. At the moment, as I'm sure you know, once energy is generated it is sold to the open market, where it is then "rebought" by the supplier.

It would also stop anyone other than the big 6 entering the market, which, apparently, is what people want.

I didn't know that actually, so that's interesting.

I don't think the majority of customers care what colour the letterhead on their bill is, as long as they get the best value for money. So really it doesn't matter to most whether there is one supplier or one thousand.

ziggy030

Interesting that npower is part of RWE group one of the 5 biggest power generators in Europe, the utilities companies all claim they make £0.05 in the pound, however it would be interesting to see the profits the parent companies make in suppling to their "shop fronts"
First posting here so be gentle lol

MillicentBystander

This is the conundrum though. The reason why companies like Centrica aren't allowed to sell the gas they have extracted to themselves at cheap prices is it gives a huge advantage to the biggest companies (even within the Big 6). And that would make the market even less competitive in the medium term (because you would be left with maybe 3 of the Big 6, and none outside the Big 6, still in the market and the passive collusion is bad enough even with 6 in that exclusive club!). A solution would be to allow companies like Centrica to sell to BG (themselves in effect) at whatever price they choose but insist that the gas is also put on the open market at the same price. Would be interesting to see how a company like Centrica reacted in such a scenario...