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.