Plans for all major energy suppliers to offer at least one low Standing Charge tariff from Jan 2026

MSE_Clare

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Martin Lewis: Energy Standing Charges news – how disappointing!

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born_again

What did you expect?
Even companies that have been doing just this have pulled out.

michaels

There doesn't actually seem to be any news anyway?  (Beyond that you can't fit a square peg in a round hole)

frosch411

It's a real shame yet unsurprising.
OFGEM seems unwilling to make significant changes in favour of companies still being able to profiteer 

Sachakins

We either force NO standing charges, requiring the utility companies to pay for everthing out of profits.
Forcing them to make the choice between shareholder dividends and profits for investments.

My view is that these standing charges are a hangover from when the utilities were government owned and the government needed to have a known budget for its costs, hence standing charges.

Can you imagine the uproar if the supermarkets charged you a separate fee for using their stores. In reality they do, its calculated into their margins.
So, since all our utilities are no longer government owned, then these utilities companies should not be allowed to charge separately either. So it should be incorporated into margin, like all other businesses.

Gerry1

Sachakins said:

Can you imagine the uproar if the supermarkets charged you a separate fee for using their stores.

That's true only if you physically go to the store and take the items away.

However, if you ask them to deliver two pints of milk, a loaf and a tin of baked beans direct to your door then the delivery charge is likely to exceed the cost of the goods.  You're not comparing like with like.

The real problem that needs to be addressed is the addition of all the bits and bobs onto the standing charge for electricity.  If these extras are necessary they should be funded from general taxation.

wrf12345

There is a hint that if the 5% VAT goes the unit cost will go up by five percent and the s/c will go down an equivalent amount (approx 50%?), which would be a very small step in the right direction.

Philip_P

The standing charges were increased to cover the costs of failed companies, and green levies. Move them into general taxation and all energy users will benefit.

Ectophile

Sachakins said:

We either force NO standing charges, requiring the utility companies to pay for everthing out of profits.
Forcing them to make the choice between shareholder dividends and profits for investments.

My view is that these standing charges are a hangover from when the utilities were government owned and the government needed to have a known budget for its costs, hence standing charges.

Can you imagine the uproar if the supermarkets charged you a separate fee for using their stores. In reality they do, its calculated into their margins.
So, since all our utilities are no longer government owned, then these utilities companies should not be allowed to charge separately either. So it should be incorporated into margin, like all other businesses.

But it's not like you're carrying a big battery and a gas bottle to your energy company once a week and paying them to fill up with energy.

Instead, they deliver all the energy straight to your home.  For a regular delivery fee.  The fee is fixed, regardless of how much energy you buy. Because the costs of delivery are the same no matter how much you use.

[Deleted User]

Philip_P said:

The standing charges were increased to cover the costs of failed companies, and green levies. Move them into general taxation and all energy users will benefit.

Only those that don't pay general taxation would see a net benefit. Energy bills will go down for everyone, but taxation will go up cancelling out any benefit on average, with some paying more overall than they are now and some less. Not that I'm against the idea of paying for some of the so-called policy costs through taxation but I think it's important to be clear that shifting the costs onto taxation doesn't remove them it just hides them.

WibbleBaaaaaa

Standing charge should be based on size of property and usage, so if you are sitting in a 4 bedroom semi with gas and lekky running through the building then you should be paying for all that in a higher standing charge, while those sitting in say a 1 bedroom flat with just lekky should be the lowest standing charge.......but at present the whole system is so broken that those sitting in a 1 bedroom flat can be paying some of the highest standing charges just for lekky, and this needs to be fixed because usually it is the poor that are the ones sitting in the 1 bedroom freezing through the winter months.......it's wrong at every level and i do not understand why it has been allowed to continue in this manner.