What extra support measures or regulations do you expect the government to bring in this winter?

What_time_is_it

This is not a "national disaster", hyperbole helps no one. 

If you think people who don't fully understand the energy market, or haven't fixed their prices, or don't switch supplier, or generally don't manage their money as well as they might DESERVE what's coming to them, then yes, it's all hype. Let 'em starve. Let 'em freeze. Nothing to see here. If only everyone was a clever as me then we'd all be just fine and dandy.

Seriously, this IS a disaster for millions of people. People in your town, your neighbourhood, maybe even your family. 

MattMattMattUK

wittynamegoeshere said:

They should take the Lib Dems' idea (like a stopped clock they say the right thing now and then!)...

The Lib Dems get a fair amount right, but they are wrong on this one, however it is an easy point score for them because they are in no danger of being anywhere near power.

wittynamegoeshere said:

Just freeze the cap.  But, unlike the Lib Dem suggestion, do not directly subsidise the suppliers.  This would force the industry into bankruptcy, let Ofgem manage their remaining operations then just turn it into the not-for-profit public service 

There are wider consequences to that, it would almost certainly end up in the courts and there would be a reasonable chance the government would lose. 

wittynamegoeshere said:

it always was before some nutter decided that privatising a monopoly essential utility was a good idea.

Short and medium term it benefitted people, the UK had some of the cheapest non-subsidised energy for decades, the tax bill was lowered by the revenue from selling off the energy generation capacity as well. The electorate chose the short term, those that benefitted will not have to pay the costs now.

wittynamegoeshere said:

Once the suppliers are all one then they can demand whatever price they like from the generators, who do not have the capability to export all that they produce so are largely captive.  They will not go bust, they will just make a reasonable profit instead of printing money as they currently do.

Many would just shut down, they are not going to operate at a loss just because you want them to. There would be power cuts and it would drive away international investment, especially in energy, but across the whole economy. The "huge profits" are not being made at the supply or generations parts of the chain, they are being made by the exploration and extraction sector and even then ignore the fact that they have spent much of the last three years losing money, that exiting Russia has likely cost BP and Shell their entire annual profit this year, that they are being taxed at 55% this year already and that historically fossil fuels are not a high profit sector, it is however a sector that varies from one year to next, with higher profits one year balancing out lower or no profits in other years.

wittynamegoeshere said:

None of the above will happen.  

Of course not, because it would be disastrous for the UK economy.

wittynamegoeshere said:

Instead this opportunity to do something better will be overlooked and we'll carry on limping on forever while the 1% keep getting richer.

Your plan would not be doing "something better", it would be a total mess. If the government wanted to make things better it would be building and funding 50-100 nuclear power stations, with additional investment in renewables, unfortunately it will not do either.

wittynamegoeshere said:

You'll own nothing and be happy.

I will make sure I own quite a bit, and I will be happy. Don't complain that others have more than you, strive to better yourself.

Max68

wittynamegoeshere said:

We have a pretty cold house and don't have issues with damp.  It might be better to find and eliminate the causes if possible rather than relying on cooking it away with expensive heat.

I said "some" houses.  It's obviously the condensation in mine as the double glazing is old.

casjen

Just another announcement fro a prediction company to get more free publicity. Telling people what they already know does nothing but create the usual media/.social media frenzy... This "average" forecasting is of no use to anybody but the headline writers as  there are to many variables on individual use, management and ability to affect changes to their consumption. IMO ignore them and do due diligence yourself. Knowledge is free and skills can be learnt to do this. Covid revealed the huge section of the population could not manage their lives and the power issue shows they haven't learnt lessons. The usual Sick/infirm exceptions apply of course.

Sea_Shell

casjen said:

Just another announcement fro a prediction company to get more free publicity. Telling people what they already know does nothing but create the usual media/.social media frenzy... This "average" forecasting is of no use to anybody but the headline writers as  there are to many variables on individual use, management and ability to affect changes to their consumption. IMO ignore them and do due diligence yourself. Knowledge is free and skills can be learnt to do this. Covid revealed the huge section of the population could not manage their lives and the power issue shows they haven't learnt lessons. The usual Sick/infirm exceptions apply of course.

But we can hope that the "media frenzy" will encourage people to "do due diligence yourself. Knowledge is free and skills can be learnt to do this."

It's quite noticeable how many people just don't know about or understand any of this stuff ☹️

savers_united

This is slowly turning into a national emergency, the next  PM should come in with radical ideas. 

The best option I feel over the short / medium term is to stabilise prices so that price shocks are removed, instead of £3500 in October and then £4000 in April and so on, I think it's better to have say £2500 over the next 5 years or whatever the calculation may be, its like most things if your can spread the costs its easier to absorb and for people to adjust their lifestyles / budgets etc. If / when prices fall back the £2500 remains until such time addtional costs are recovered, Then the focus can be on efficency of properties and other energy saving measures, but this crisis has come so quickly its not given people time, even those who felt they were ok for a couple of years have lost their supplier and been forced to more expensive tariffs.

The cap is no longer protecting people, it's the market rate and not really fit for purpose unless it is a true cap to give longer term security. 

Mstty

I personally believe that whatever solution the powers that be come up with should not come in until the summer.

It is imperative that we all learn the real cost of energy, learn how to reduce those costs and use less and then have some help.

No point making people's bills look artificially better than they are.

Shock then assistance.

Otherwise most won't learn the basics about energy pricing/usage and what it means to their daily lives.

pochase

The cap is/was a protection that energy supplier cannot charge more than market rates. It is no protection if you have extreme market rates.

Who exactly is going to pay for your plan of reducing the cap to £2500? 28.4 million households and a reduction of £1700 per year equals 48.24 billion to be found per year if everybody just would the average the cap is based on. 

RogerBareford

What_time_is_it said:

So... as a country we seem to be still sleepwalking into this crisis.

Where are the government? What are they doing?
How can they pretend to be surprised by today's news on the price cap? Perhaps someone in government needs an account on this forum?

Make no mistake, this is a national disaster and we have a government that is still burying their heads in the sand and who seem content to largely leave it to the market. The market is broken. Without action and planning (not reacting, panic, and on-the-hoof policy making) now, the country will be broken.

This is only a national disaster due toso many people in this country living paycheck to paycheck and unable to budget properly. The fact is that energy is going up in price due to factors outside the control of our government and people need to adjust accordingly.

Just look at the debt free wannabee forum on here to see how 90%+ of people who need help were overspending and when they actually budget properly they have plenty of money spare to pay down debt and then eventually build up savings.

savers_united said:

This is slowly turning into a national emergency, the next  PM should come in with radical ideas. 

The best option I feel over the short / medium term is to stabilise prices so that price shocks are removed, instead of £3500 in October and then £4000 in April and so on, I think it's better to have say £2500 over the next 5 years or whatever the calculation may be, its like most things if your can spread the costs its easier to absorb and for people to adjust their lifestyles / budgets etc. If / when prices fall back the £2500 remains until such time addtional costs are recovered, Then the focus can be on efficency of properties and other energy saving measures, but this crisis has come so quickly its not given people time, even those who felt they were ok for a couple of years have lost their supplier and been forced to more expensive tariffs.

The cap is no longer protecting people, it's the market rate and not really fit for purpose unless it is a true cap to give longer term security. 

It's common sense to budget, save money and build up emergency funds but many people choose not to do it.

Now they will have to feel the reprecussions of years and years of money mismangement. The only good thing that might come of this is that people learn to manage their money better but i don't think that will happen and when the good times come again they will go back into "spend spend spend" mode.

Avoirdupois

...and the tress we're feeling this time round is peanuts compared with the levels that are likely when sundry governments bite the bullet (if they ever do!) with respect to weaning us all off gas...
On the other hand, we can, I suppose, all look forward to cheap, safe, reliable energy courtesy of all the Chinese-built nuclear power stations.