With the cost of natural gas at it's highest, energy bills are about to soar. Many consumers are in for a nasty shock, but this could also lead people to begin to save needless energy waste they currently take for granted.

 

Manufactuers are dealing with the HGV driver shortage and now the lack of CO2 - all in the lead up to the Christmas period.

 

The average is the cost of bills is about to skyrocket.. so what is the answer? For once, this isn't a problem directly related to Brexit, but due to current policy and Brexit we are about to hit a bumpy period. Crippled with the tax rise in 2020, this is going to hit the poor the hardest once again.

Is this not just a general inflation debate? It rose a lot in the past month!

I thought this would be about eating too many baked beans. :lol:

Is this not just a general inflation debate? It rose a lot in the past month!

 

And it's going to keep rising - it's more about the industry itself. Loads of start-ups are/will go bust as they cannot afford the wholesale prices due to the shortage. Then I think the cap is going up in a couple of weeks so energy firms can charge consumers more. Probably rise again after the next cap review too.

I’ve always been one who thinks energy electric water etc should be public assets as all these energy companies supply from the same sources so it’s just a monopoly!

 

Of course that doesn’t answer the question of price rises you put forward Roo!

Edited September 19, 20213 yr by steve201

 

Yeah, it's not looking good - but this is a crisis entirely of the government's own making. They don't want to bring in 'radical' policies like the 4-day working week but might end up bringing us back the joy of the 3-day working week, the 'blackouts' and winter of discontent that was experienced in the 1970s. Great stuff guys.

The government has said that there is no chance of power cuts. Time to start preparing for the lights to go out over the winter.

With the cost of natural gas at it's highest, energy bills are about to soar. Many consumers are in for a nasty shock, but this could also lead people to begin to save needless energy waste they currently take for granted.

 

Manufactuers are dealing with the HGV driver shortage and now the lack of CO2 - all in the lead up to the Christmas period.

 

The average is the cost of bills is about to skyrocket.. so what is the answer? For once, this isn't a problem directly related to Brexit, but due to current policy and Brexit we are about to hit a bumpy period. Crippled with the tax rise in 2020, this is going to hit the poor the hardest once again.

Erm,

 

@1440039491301875714

Erm,

 

@1440039491301875714

 

This particular issue isn't directly linked to Brexit though, as far as I'm aware it's an issue across Europe (less familiar with how Europe absorb costs for consumers though). Like many things, we don't have the infastructure to rely on being self-sufficent. Brexit of course is making the situation indrectly worse, but this current issue is related to wholesale prices. And of course longer term the winners are going to be the big suppliers of energy who will never offer competitive tarriffs like these smaller companies, who are going to fold in the next 6 months. Welcome to the glory years I suppose.

Yeah so this is in the headlines in the UK and Russia (for propaganda purposes) but the average person on the continent wouldn’t have a clue that this was happening. I only know we are impacted because DW did an explainer on why Germany wasn’t bothered and this wasn’t a story even tho Russia was trying to use it to twist Germans and the EUs arm on turning the taps on for nordstream2 ASAP.

Of course won't this be a case of the tax payer bailing out the privatised energy companies? No doubt making up by raising taxes on the poor or by more spending cuts. Socialism for the rich companies when they need it, capitalism for anyone else.

Exactly, that’s neoliberalism for you

 

Rayner so much better than Starmer at PMQs today!

What annoys me here is the circular logic, the government are refusing to bail out 'failing companies' but those companies are failing due to the energy price cap. Whilst I understand the idea of wanting to reduce bills for consumers, I don't think you can really artificially deflate prices to avoid a political difficulty of rising bills and then talk about failing companies. In a normal competitive market without restriction these companies may have eventually been eating up by bigger companies in this situation but here their being eaten up by government policy.

 

The big question is obviously whether the same principle will be applied to the Big Five if one of them ends up in this situation.

Love smaller energy companies like ‘Green’ having a go at the government for not intervening in the market 🙄 as usual private companies wanting their cake and eating it!

Love smaller energy companies like ‘Green’ having a go at the government for not intervening in the market 🙄 as usual private companies wanting their cake and eating it!

 

I see both sides of the coin, but the smaller companies are good for consumers. All that's going to end up happening, is the big energy suppliers will win market share back. Some of the big suppliers are already offering fixed 24 and 36 month deals at horrible rates which people will get locked in to. Looks carnage out there at the moment, a lot of companies could go under as they cannot afford the wholesale price.

So it’s true capitalism doesn’t work in a monopoly then?