'Unfair' standing charges need to go: MPs back Martin's and MSE's calls for energy bill overhaul

matt_drummer

badmemory said:

I don't see how standing charges are ever going to go even with smart meters.  We will have the ever increasing energy companies senior pay & dividends to fund & the up in OFGEM allowed profits.  Also the nasty things that are supposed to happen to the people with smart meters & being cut off will not happen either.  Well not until they have got all of us on smart meters anyway.  After that we could all be back on the 3 day week, well depending on where you live anyway.

Arguments like this don't make sense.

On the one hand energy companies are greedy and want as much of our money as possible.

But yet, some of you think they want to restrict our use and cut us off reducing their profits.

Which one do you believe is true?

The two sides just don't go together.

The profits are a tiny percentage of the bill, if they made nothing we would pay hardly any less than we do now.

The profits, if there were any, are a big number because they have a large number of customers, not because they are overcharging and profit gouging.

If I sold everybody in the country something each year and made £1 per sale, not a lot, I would be on £70 million a year, a large amount of money.

Why is this such a difficult concept for so many people to grasp?

[Deleted User]

badmemory said:

I don't see how standing charges are ever going to go even with smart meters.  We will have the ever increasing energy companies senior pay & dividends to fund & the up in OFGEM allowed profits.  Also the nasty things that are supposed to happen to the people with smart meters & being cut off will not happen either.  Well not until they have got all of us on smart meters anyway.  After that we could all be back on the 3 day week, well depending on where you live anyway.

They are not going to disappear but every £ of cost reduction helps.

matt_drummer

badmemory said:

I don't see how standing charges are ever going to go even with smart meters.  We will have the ever increasing energy companies senior pay & dividends to fund & the up in OFGEM allowed profits.  Also the nasty things that are supposed to happen to the people with smart meters & being cut off will not happen either.  Well not until they have got all of us on smart meters anyway.  After that we could all be back on the 3 day week, well depending on where you live anyway.

Even if the senior pay and dividends were £1 billion a year it's £14 for each of us a year, it's irrelevant.