Energy Price Guarantee No Longer 2 years just 6 months at current level

wittynamegoeshere

It just needs a fixed number of subsidised units per household, there will be winners and losers and some would no doubt plead over their special circumstances, but this is always how things are.  This would be preferable to some complicated system that ends up subsidising lords of the manor.

Ballymoney

As unpopular as todays announcement may be, the one thing that is likely to prop up the insane gas prices for longer is overly generous government subsidies. This was an unsustainable approach.

Usage has to be dramatically reduced to have any chance in bringing the prices down. Giving subsidies to wealthy households was ridiculous.

The idea of the first xxxkwh of gas/Elec being subsidised then anything over that is charged full rate is a far fairer approach and long term, is likely to bring prices down. And I say this as high gas user who will be hit by this.

Alnat1

Energy allowances per person could get very complicated. Will students register at home or their term address? Will it be every person or every adult? What about people who work away for months at a time? What about kids who spend equal time with parents who now live separately? What if couples split? Would it cover all fuels? It sounds like a system that would need to be so complicated it probably can't be done.

macman

It makes good sense to review the EPG in April. We have no idea where wholesale gas prices will be next spring, or even next week-look at the current volatility. To have an open-ended subsidy going as far forward as October '24 was always irresponsible electioneering.
No one has said the EPG will be cancelled in April '23, just reviewed. If wholesale prices fall, then it will be perfectly possible to leave the cap at the current level while still reducing the cost to the public purse.

double_dutchy

Of course it's entirely possible that Liz Truss will be out of a job in days or weeks, so we have no idea if the incoming PM or any new chancellor will approve of the 2 year EPG, still want to change in April or will want to do something completely different!

55Ant

wittynamegoeshere said:

It just needs a fixed number of subsidised units per household, there will be winners and losers and some would no doubt plead over their special circumstances, but this is always how things are.  This would be preferable to some complicated system that ends up subsidising lords of the manor.

Not agreeing or disagreeing, but a bit of an issue with this is the government has told everyone to buy an electric car for the last 5 years, which is going to be a substantial portion of energy (and maybe, the bigger the better as its a replacement for petrol? I dont know, its such a mess before even opening the EV cars are sustainable idea!?)

I think they can get round this by using the off peak tools perhaps. 

All i hope is they tell us sooner rather than later. 

Ryan_Holden

Had my suspicons this was coming, even started a topic about it.

Took a fix to counter it and then Octopus cancelled my fix when the EPG came out, so now stuck back with the variable. Maybe not so bad in the long run, but man, crazy.

deano2099

Alnat1 said:

Energy allowances per person could get very complicated. Will students register at home or their term address? Will it be every person or every adult? What about people who work away for months at a time? What about kids who spend equal time with parents who now live separately? What if couples split? Would it cover all fuels? It sounds like a system that would need to be so complicated it probably can't be done.

It's complicated however you do it, short of just doing it "per bill" as they've done so far.
They're planning to target this more, so the question is how it's targeted. You get a certain weird effect as one approach is to base it off council tax bands - all the broad assumptions about number of people etc. are already baked into this (though not accurately). So houses in higher bands will tend to have more people living in them and be more costly to run, hence require more help... But I'm not sure how politically viable that would be as they're also more likely to be higher earners and therefore have less "need".
It's more palatable with council tax as two people living in a four-bed are paying over the odds for their council tax in terms of how much they access services, but at least they still get a nice big house to live in...

OhWow

55Ant said:

wittynamegoeshere said:

It just needs a fixed number of subsidised units per household, there will be winners and losers and some would no doubt plead over their special circumstances, but this is always how things are.  This would be preferable to some complicated system that ends up subsidising lords of the manor.

Not agreeing or disagreeing, but a bit of an issue with this is the government has told everyone to buy an electric car for the last 5 years, which is going to be a substantial portion of energy (and maybe, the bigger the better as its a replacement for petrol? I dont know, its such a mess before even opening the EV cars are sustainable idea!?)

And a previous government encouraged people to buy polluting diesel cars!!

Mstty

Ryan_Holden said:

Had my suspicons this was coming, even started a topic about it.

Took a fix to counter it and then Octopus cancelled my fix when the EPG came out, so now stuck back with the variable. Maybe not so bad in the long run, but man, crazy.

Octopus could not cancel your fix you would have to have agreed to come off it?