Energy news in general

molerat

Scot_39 said:

The_Green_Hornet said:

Ildhund said:

Scot_39 said:

... costs imposed via policy costs in our bills by this Labour govt instead of properly funding benefits via taxation to cover them -

I'm going to question this again. What are the big differences between adding costs to electricity customers' bills and adding them to 'general taxation'? The cohort of those who pay VAT must include the entire population. The cohort of those who pay income tax is smaller, largely because it excludes the young and some older citizens on low incomes. The cohort of those who buy electricity is smaller again, because there is usually only one bill per household. So if you wanted to raise money for extra benefits, say, by general taxation, you could increase VAT by 1% (to raise £8.8Bn) or the basic rate of income tax by 1p in the £ (to raise £6.9Bn). WHD is a bit odd, because it's a benefit that's paid for also by those who receive it.

I'd like to hear why you'd rather see an increase in taxation than an increase to the standing charge for electricity. Would you personally be better off? (In case you're wondering, I would be.)

Income tax is progressive; flat rate standing charges are not.

The government prefers to put these things onto the standing charge as customers tend to blame greedy energy companies instead of them when their bills go up.

Yes todays bbc hys / comments are full of such ill informed folk blaming tge energy companies despite the Ofgem summary breakdowns showing

£35 increase basically = c£50 govt costs - c£15 savings on wholesale costs.

£35, luxury, the rise is £55 in N Scotland - a 3% increase.

These costs are a smoke and mirrors way of increasing tax without increasing tax.

Scot_39

Yes mine were regional averages - I'd have to go full deep diving into Ofgem spreadsheets for per region breakdowns - and it takes along time to find anything meaningful to an outsider like me when I last delved - and even then there were too many - "figures from providers" for my liking.

Had a quick look at regional SC /unit rates - your regional electric unit - single rate - rate is up more than ave by c0.6xp - so c£17 at 2700kWh tdcv  extra extra.

debitcardmayhem

Possible threats to new pylons Norfolk-Tilbury , my MP says it could be done cheaper, without pylons ,not sure I agree https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvgn08r7jepo

Scot_39

Nimbyism is alive and well it seems.

And we wonder why it takes so long to get anything major done in the UK.
And even that that is done in tge end, done at a reasonable cost.

debitcardmayhem

Scot_39 said:

Nimbyism is alive and well it seems.

And we wonder why it takes so long to get anything major done in the UK.
And even that that is done in tge end, done at a reasonable cost.

Sady you’re right, oh and 2-3 years deliberation is going to add c15% on today’s costs.
I saw somewhere that you may be able to put a wind turbine on your land(not that they are cheap) but that made be coin a new phrase - NIYBY , not in your back yard😎

Scot_39

In some industry press - not of course in the official Ofgem announcement last year, it wax estimated the cost of egl2 had increased over £1.3bn pounds to ovef £4.3bn during the 2 years of Ofgem approval negotiations.

4.3/3 = a whopping 43% increase.

https://www.constructionnews.co.uk/civils/electricity-superhighway-1-3bn-cost-hike-gets-green-light-14-08-2024/

Egl1 also suffered 18m delay due to such supplier capacity limitations mentioned in the EGL2 link above - from initial project planned timescales.

And during that 18m, nd during the knock on impact of that 2 years - grid thermal constraint payments in the £100s of millions will be paid.

And if those 2 miss 2029 deliveries - NG ESO forecast as part of their £3bn peak modelling, will see over £400m extra grid thermal constraint payments per annum until they are operational.

So all these delays can have mulitiple impacts - construction costs, kit availability from busy suppliers and in many cases like tge egls - punishing secondary costs like grid thermal constraints.

And in the case of EGLs extra curtailment all as a direct result of lack of joined up planning and contracts that allow wind farms to be built and paid before adequate infrastructure in place to support them.  Farms like Seagreen that see 71% curtailment in their first year.

And being made far worse by "95% by 2030" accelerated plans for renewables adding 10s GW more capacity ahead of grid infrastructure in next 4 years.

HillStreetBlues

Scot_39 said:

Nimbyism is alive and well it seems.

And we wonder why it takes so long to get anything major done in the UK.
And even that that is done in tge end, done at a reasonable cost.

It always is, it seems some people are only happy when it's someone else's area.

Scot_39

Just looking through todays headlines - seems their might be some political pressure looking at current failues on cutting bill costs as promissed pre election.

So see e.g. Sunday Times front page here 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm2z4emm4r9o

Can only see the headline and first few paragraphs as don't have a Times account - and like everything in the next 2 months plus to budget pretty speculative.  It mentions the 5% VAT and upto £215 in green levies.

But given Ofgem have just passed on additional costs - regional average - £51 (increase £35 despite wholesale dropping £15 ex VAT) onto our bills - inc about £15 of that increase being net zero and £17 WHD extension costs. It seems a bit of a reversal.

The Sunday Times isn't the only one throwing a VAT rate cut into the rumour mix.

But I suspect the reality is that their is no money to pay for such a change. Hence the Sun Times front page part of story ending with the reference to "scepticism"

MattMattMattUK

It will be speculation designed to get people's hope up so that they get angry when it does not happen, typical of print media. There is no headroom for in the budget for tax cuts, the government needs to raise revenue but unless it unties it's hands and puts up a major tax it will be fiddling whilst Rome burns. 

JKenH

MattMattMattUK said:

It will be speculation designed to get people's hope up so that they get angry when it does not happen, typical of print media. There is no headroom for in the budget for tax cuts, the government needs to raise revenue but unless it unties its hands and puts up a major tax it will be fiddling whilst Rome burns. 

UK taxes are at a level that further tax rises may be counterproductive. We have seen, for instance, how the tax penalties for individuals earning more than £100,000 are in fact leading to highly skilled professional people retiring or reducing their hours to stay under the threshold - this is particularly affecting doctors. Not only is the personal allowance tapered down by £1 for every £2 earned but other benefits such as some child care allowance is lost. Increasing taxes may drive wealthy taxpayers abroad or result in wealthy taxpayers making behavioural changes to avoid tax - for instance defer making capital disposals until a milder tax regime is in place. Increasing a tax may result in a lower overall net take. 

This is not meant as a political attack on any party but basic economics. The Irish economy has thrived by offering low corporate tax rates. Unfortunately the UK economy is not in a sufficiently good place to allow the Chancellor scope for tax cuts but equally it can’t stand tax rises either.

One tax the government might consider would be to tax FiT income - I can’t see any downside there and it is directly paid for by electricity bill payers so should knock a few pence off bills. (By the way I am a recipient of FiT)