Call me Mr cynical but just as we're being encouraged , nay , forced into electrical transportation there's a massive price hike in electrickery prices .... Ok , so there's the terrible Ukrainian war going on but these rises are unsustainable to many and whilst Rome burns the fiddlers are still fiddling . Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
The problem with direct debits is these companies can increase the amounts they take from people's accounts with the amounts unrelated to actual consumption, its a scam in my opinion. Folks paying say £100 a month suddenly going to £400 or more without good reason, We have meters, easy to work out consumption and the bill shows the standing charge and current price per unit or therm. Do the maths, I do. Folks were enticed onto direct debits with the promise of a discount, well those days are long gone.
Perhaps it's the hot weather that is deluding the country, but in a few months this increase will hit millions of normal people like a tsunami, yet apparently Truss will deal with this by making tax cuts? The rate of increase in utility bills will require her to abolish tax altogether for people on low, even average wages.
Oh, and don't forget the Tory mantra: A free market economy will increase competition and drive down prices for the consumer...... Epic fail.
I don’t see how the tax cut argument holds water. You don’t pay any tax on earnings up to 13k. If someone earns 20k a year they are hardly paying any tax. So giving them a percentage of nothing back is not going to make a jot of difference and reducing VAT will make no difference cos if they’ve spent all their money on fuel bills there’s nothing left to spend on purchases to get the reduced vat benefit. It’s an absolute shambles.
Back to the dark ages of 60 years ago innit. Hardly anyone had central heating, houses were virtually uninsulated, Gas was just for the cooker, elec for lights, the hoover and 5 hours of telly. Everyone gathered round ONE fire in the living room and ice on the inside of the bedroom windows. We really have lived in a golden age of T-shirts in winter, whole house heated, every leccy gadget you can think of, everyone has 2-3-4 cars per family and hardly anyone could get to work on a push-bike as we've been tricked into commuting. It was never going to end well. We're OK on ze boat, I spent about £500 last year on heat/gas/elec. £50/month. If it doubles... whatever. Fink I'm ahead of the game BUT, I'd like to buy a house really but I couldn't afford to feed it. Maybe I'll get a bigger boat.
We are heading back to serfdom. When I moved to my present gaff it turned out we had prepayment meters which initially filled me with dread. I have grown to like them, keep an eye on it scoot up the co op if its low. The powers that be keep telling me to book an appointment for a smart meter upgrade, they can cock off. We are lucky in as much that I live on a country estate and for the sake of a saturday morning coppicing and such ( followed by copious amounts of free beer) I can help myself to as much wood as I can cut to feed the woodburner. My last yearly gas bill was £500. which I thought was ok although this will obviously increase. My bill for chains for the saw however is getting out of hand cutting all that oak.Despite my seemingly rural lifestyle I am very anxious about what the future holds. I am considering an oil drum with a fire under it for the hot water.
I'd trust either of them more than the current set up. It worked well enough when we had national grid supplying the uk from our own power stations using coal from the national coal board and from north sea gas. The current set up is designed to screw profit and dividends out of us all. This all started long before Vlad started playing up. The two-Bob energy providers started going pop a couple of years ago, leaving us all to pick up the pieces. Its is a national disgrace where we now find ourselves.
We are yes, to try and clean up the air we all breathe. But the problem is that lots of our electricity is generated by burning… gas. 50% atm I’d do more onshore and offshore wind with small nuclear. In the meantime, tax the production side of the businesses supplying us. It’s probably not that simple though…
I think I said it up there somewhere, but the thing that has really irked me is I have an electric only tarring from a green energy supplier. There should be no reason for my electricity to cost more, yet I’m told the wholesale price has increased. I am currently waiting for solar PV and a battery to be installed, but suspect this won’t be until the autumn when the sun is past its best!
Anyone think it's a con to cover the cost of EV charging it's was never going be cheap for ever. It's worrying tbh talks of 4k just for heating and keeping the lights on is frankly bonkers. Winter is going to hit hard for some. Can we kick out both sides of the house and start again?
Heating engineers have no right to be in loft unless they decide to hump a boiler up a Dodgy pair of steps and fix it to a wobbly bit of ply on 2 x 1 and 4 inch screws
It needs people power now. Cancel Direct Debits and insist on credit repayment Wait every month/quarter for final demands. Submit meter readings every month so they can't estimate your usage. Request help to go on a minimum payment agreement.
