We'd like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum... Read More »
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
And now the forecasters are saying the price cap could hit £6000
Comments
-
tghe-retford said:We're not talking about the idea of one less phone, one less car or one less takeaway here. We're talking of magnitudes of meals to stave off malnutrition, heating to prevent health issues which will place more pressure on the NHS, transportation to work which you need to pay the bills, the ability to donate to foodbanks which will provide food to those in need and the ability to live in your own home for independence and raise a family to name a few. Not things you can wave away or simply cut out.
To put this another way, if we don't see evidence of the sort of discretionary spending I just mentioned markedly falling then too much support is being given to people who don't need it.8 -
wittynamegoeshere said:There are some pretty cold statements made on here, by presumably fairly wealthy people who appear to have zero empathy for those that simply can not afford the basic costs of living.I get the impression that a significant number of vociferous posters on this forum could have a substantial financial or career interest within the industry and seem very keen to sometimes pretty insultingly put down those who question the status quo. I don't know what the motive is, but the end result is often unpleasant to read.The glaring elephant in the room is that SOME of our energy comes from imported energy sources so is subject to world events. The issue is that we are selling our own home-grown energy to ourselves for pretty much the same price as it would cost to import, and this is often passed off as being due to the holy rules of market forces. This means that the overall energy mix is costing the suppliers the same amount as entirely imported energy would cost, and those who happen to run the energy resources are making a massive windfall profit, at the expense of the entire population of the country.I now await the usual insulting jokes about communism etc etc.
My local council is already talking of implementing heat banks alongside the food banks that are already here. If the food banks can still run because when the bills come in alongside the rising food prices, people are not going to be able to afford to donate.
In the same way that interest rate rises and actual wage cuts will not do anything to curb inflation, cutting usage will not cut energy prices. This is a supply issue and it won't resolve until we have more supply on our end and on our terms. All cutting usage will do is raise wholesale prices to make firms more profit at the expense of those still paying. Companies know that if people use less, they can still make profit from the remaining user base by raising prices. They do not need to lower prices any more.6 -
wittynamegoeshere said:There are some pretty cold statements made on here, by presumably fairly wealthy people who appear to have zero empathy for those that simply can not afford the basic costs of living.I get the impression that a significant number of vociferous posters on this forum could have a substantial financial or career interest within the industry and seem very keen to sometimes pretty insultingly put down those who question the status quo. I don't know what the motive is, but the end result is often unpleasant to read.The glaring elephant in the room is that SOME of our energy comes from imported energy sources so is subject to world events. The issue is that we are selling our own home-grown energy to ourselves for pretty much the same price as it would cost to import, and this is often passed off as being due to the holy rules of market forces. This means that the overall energy mix is costing the suppliers the same amount as entirely imported energy would cost, and those who happen to run the energy resources are making a massive windfall profit, at the expense of the entire population of the country.I now await the usual insulting jokes about communism etc etc.
The issue is we sold everything off decades ago and didn't build more. It's all now privately owned and they can sell it at whatever the going rate is.
1 -
tghe-retford said:All cutting usage will do is raise wholesale prices to make firms more profit at the expense of those still paying.
5 -
Ultrasonic said:tghe-retford said:All cutting usage will do is raise wholesale prices to make firms more profit at the expense of those still paying.
The days of reduced demand will lead to reduced prices have come to an end. It no longer applies. And even if there was an excess of supply somehow, they can just do an OPEC on energy to keep prices high.1 -
wittynamegoeshere said:There are some pretty cold statements made on here, by presumably fairly wealthy people who appear to have zero empathy for those that simply can not afford the basic costs of living.I get the impression that a significant number of vociferous posters on this forum could have a substantial financial or career interest within the industry and seem very keen to sometimes pretty insultingly put down those who question the status quo. I don't know what the motive is, but the end result is often unpleasant to read.The glaring elephant in the room is that SOME of our energy comes from imported energy sources so is subject to world events. The issue is that we are selling our own home-grown energy to ourselves for pretty much the same price as it would cost to import, and this is often passed off as being due to the holy rules of market forces. This means that the overall energy mix is costing the suppliers the same amount as entirely imported energy would cost, and those who happen to run the energy resources are making a massive windfall profit, at the expense of the entire population of the country.I now await the usual insulting jokes about communism etc etc.
Perhaps it would work better if the govt owned the energy industry.
1) Each time you wanted to change something it would take weeks or months as it does for HMRC, DVLA and the passport office as there is no customer service ethic
2) And how about investment - imagine you are the chancellor and have £1bn to invest - do you invest in energy generation (probably unpopular to at least one group of nimbys and of no interest to everyone else) or build a new hospital?
I think....2 -
sienew said:michaels said:sienew said:MattMattMattUK said:
The thing with the levels that are predicted for October onwards as they are not going to be costs which most people will just blindly keep running up, they will cause behavioural and lifestyle changes, the average bill will not be even close to £6,000 because most people will cut back dramatically. There are predictions of dramatic drops in consumption due to cost increases, people will adjust their usage downward.
(I'm not saying this is right thing for people to do... just that it seems quite probable)
Otherwise we are back to either stealing it (ie invading Norway) or negotiating a cheaper deal (abandoning Ukraine)I think....0 -
I seriously worry for families that don’t fully grasp the whole seriousness of the crises and don’t connect their direct debit cost with unit costs and therefore how their usage will directly impact their costs. So many people honestly believe that they pay ‘x’ a month and that covers their energy use. I really wish the media would do more to try and get this across as it’s so important.When a family starts paying there £300 a month and is cutting back on food, and then in 3,6,12 months get told by their energy supplier they are hundreds of pounds in debit, what are they going to do?We have cut back on many things and will only be cooking at weekends to help save electricity but this is because we understand the less units you use the less you pay.6
-
tghe-retford said:Problem is, that is exactly what happened with the mobile phone network market in the early to mid 2010s. They priced out people and increased prices for people who could still afford their product.I don't recall a government-mandated cap on mobile phone prices, though.There isn't much scope (if any) for energy generators to increase the wholesale price of energy unilaterally, and energy retailers have a cap that's tied to the wholesale price.N. Hampshire, he/him. Octopus Intelligent Go elec & Tracker gas / Vodafone BB / iD mobile. Ripple Kirk Hill member.
2.72kWp PV facing SSW installed Jan 2012. 11 x 247w panels, 3.6kw inverter. 34 MWh generated, long-term average 2.6 Os.Not exactly back from my break, but dipping in and out of the forum.Ofgem cap table, Ofgem cap explainer. Economy 7 cap explainer. Gas vs E7 vs peak elec heating costs, Best kettle!1 -
xzibit said:I seriously worry for families that don’t fully grasp the whole seriousness of the crises and don’t connect their direct debit cost with unit costs and therefore how their usage will directly impact their costs. So many people honestly believe that they pay ‘x’ a month and that covers their energy use. I really wish the media would do more to try and get this across as it’s so important.When a family starts paying there £300 a month and is cutting back on food, and then in 3,6,12 months get told by their energy supplier they are hundreds of pounds in debit, what are they going to do?We have cut back on many things and will only be cooking at weekends to help save electricity but this is because we understand the less units you use the less you pay.
1
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

Categories
- All Categories
- 351.4K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.3K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 453.8K Spending & Discounts
- 244.4K Work, Benefits & Business
- 599.6K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 177.1K Life & Family
- 257.9K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16.2K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.6K Read-Only Boards