£2500 Price Cap Martin's view

GingerTim

murphyslaw2020 said:

GingerTim said:

I take it from that that Martin won't be campaigning for a blanket cancelling of exit fees on fixed tariffs...

why should he? You made choice to take a fixed price.

I didn't say he should. (and I fixed in August 2021)

phillw

facade said:
If they add say 0.5p to the cost per kwh  for the following 10 years as the loan recovery (or whatever it needs to be), or even raise VAT on energy by a few % then everyone will pay back their fair share*, the low energy users received less subsidy and pay back less 0.5p's or VAT  the high energy users took more and pay more back. How would that not be a fair split?

What if someone goes from a high user now to a low user in a few years?

MattMattMattUK

bytesplicer said:

As far as I can see this freeze and the way it's paid for will result in, down the line, the poor low energy users paying off the energy costs of the wealthy high energy users for possibly decades. 

The split really is not as you think it is. Low users are generally those with office jobs and/or solar. Higher users tend to be disabled and pensioners who spend a lot of time at home. This will be paid for from general taxation so it is going to be high earners and businesses who end up paying the bill in the long run, low earners do not make a net contribution so it will not cost them in the long run. 

bytesplicer said:

So the energy companies benefit from the loans, 

It depends what you mean by "energy companies", suppliers will not go bust, that largely benefits everyone, they make minimal profit (a max of 1.8%) and most are losing money at the moment.

bytesplicer said:

the wealthy benefit with immediately cheaper bills 

Everyone benefits from immediately cheaper energy bills.

bytesplicer said:

and knowing long term that their energy bills are being split with the poor, and not a fair split at that.

Long term this will not directly cost the poor anything, they are a net cost to the nation and will continue to be subsidised by higher earners and business. They may loose out in that higher debt repayments will result in lower spending on benefits and services, but they will not pay for this directly.

bytesplicer said:

She really hates the poor and thinks of them as stupid, saying she doesn't want to give handouts while doing exactly that to the people who don't need it.

I guess by "she" you mean Truss. I do not like her politics, she is a populist with no principals, is economically illiterate and will be bad for the country, but overall this is probably the least worst option available, it is also the path proposed by Labour, the Lib Dems, the SNP, Martin Lewis, the IFS and many others. The major advantage of this scheme which is why it has been supported by economists is because it will significantly constrain inflation, keeping it to around 10% where as it could have gone as high as 20% without this intervention. Handouts were not a good option in this scenario, doing nothing was not a good option, more limited action might have been better but would have resulted in a significant drop in living standards and people are not willing to accept that. 

[Deleted User]

Grumpy_chap said:

I think the price cap actually needs to be simpler - the reference to the annual £2.5k (or whatever figure it will be) is unhelpful and confusing. 

Yes, completely agree, but working out what a good way of explaining it would be is a little difficult.

Grumpy_chap said:

There should be one unit rate and one standing charge rate and irrespective of where in the country you are, with same changes for variation between payment types irrespective of supplier.

Then you would get complaints about one area of the country subsidising network upgrades and maintenance in another area.

Grumpy_chap said:

Suppliers should also be forced to allow consumers to change to the most effective payment type - I have been stuck on "pay-on-receipt-of-bill" since EDF took over as SoLR and they don't facilitate return to direct debit.

With you on this one too, unless there are very good debt recovery reasons and other options have already been tried, customers should have free choice of billing method.

MSE_James

Now that we're about to hear from the PM about the latest set of measures, please could we direct you to this thread to share initial reactions and questions?