Don't Pay UK

[fundy]

Even the CEO of EDF has now come out and said something needs to be done. His suggestion is that bills are frozen at their current rate, and suppliers are then allowed to borrow from wherever to cover the shortfall, with a view to covering the costs of this over the next ten years when prices will hopefully fall. So we will pay for it, just over a longer time but with a flatter price curve. Seems like a sensible solution so long as we don't get hit with almighty interest on the loans. Maybe he's getting genuinely twitchy about people just not paying their bills?

Some of the energy companies were telling the govt this as far back as April! Starmers recent proposal is basically an extension of what I think it was Scottish Power initially proposed months back and several companies have come out in support of

 

[PJ87]

Listening to the EDF boss, I see he concurs with my logic… freeze the bill rather than targeted support to UC and pensioners. Literally 80% of the country won’t be able to afford 5K bills. Just sad that our leaders don’t think that way even when the companies are now saying it

It's not just the EDF boss

Octupus, British gas and Scottish power have aired the same plans, just depends which news outlet reports it

Sounds like all the big players are together with this plan (which tbh sounds a sensible solution)

The octupus and British gas one I read was backed by a loan that was paid back either by general taxation or a levy on bills over 1-2 decades

Tbh .. this is the kind of situation where you need these plans to be listened to!

 

[bobmac]

At least we're all in it together.....

Listen to this bar steward squirm

 

[Deleted member 18121]

I'm with octopus after my energy company went bust last year..... I will be cancelling my DD and then paying quarterly for what we use as there is no DD discount with them anyway.

It may do something.... It may not, but I see the logic behind reducing their income from monthly to quarterly in a bit to hurt their cash flow a bit.

 

[Reemul]

I'm with octopus after my energy company went bust last year..... I will be cancelling my DD and then paying quarterly for what we use as there is no DD discount with them anyway.

It may do something.... It may not, but I see the logic behind reducing their income from monthly to quarterly in a bit to hurt their cash flow a bit.

Yep i can see hurting their cash flow at a difficult time will benefit people. Just like those companies that have already gone busts custoiemrs have managed to get decent cheaper deals elsewhere and not at a massive increase.

We need government intervention and we need to not lose any more suppliers especially a big one

 

[Mudball]

Even the CEO of EDF has now come out and said something needs to be done. His suggestion is that bills are frozen at their current rate, and suppliers are then allowed to borrow from wherever to cover the shortfall, with a view to covering the costs of this over the next ten years when prices will hopefully fall. So we will pay for it, just over a longer time but with a flatter price curve. Seems like a sensible solution so long as we don't get hit with almighty interest on the loans. Maybe he's getting genuinely twitchy about people just not paying their bills?

I suggested a similar approach a few posts back. Despite ‘high paying London job’ I can’t see regular middle class being able to handle this free market economic. Johnson has now branded this as the price to pay to protect Ukraine (pure politician posturing).

From an energy Co stand point, the higher the price at the consumer end, the higher the likelihood defaults. So it is in their interest that prices are affordable. From a supply side pov, they need some form of cap at which they can buy/hedge. The float between the supply cost and consumer cost is something they need the govt to support. To some extend in Europe prices are regulated and therefore the consumer end economics is already fixed.

The unfortunate bit is that Starmer is supporting/proposing a similar approach, so this will soon be branded a ‘lefty approach’ and will get shot down, despite it being the only sensible approach on the table.

 

[PJ87]

I'm with octopus after my energy company went bust last year..... I will be cancelling my DD and then paying quarterly for what we use as there is no DD discount with them anyway.

It may do something.... It may not, but I see the logic behind reducing their income from monthly to quarterly in a bit to hurt their cash flow a bit.

To be fair octupus are (imo) the best out there and their philosophy is much less screw the little guy over.

I mean they always try to charge only 5% more than they pay for energy and with price caps were always the ones that came in £50 under the cap rather than taking the max.

Hurting the wrong company there.. we need more like them

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Additional average yearly power costs equating to the price of a top quality golf club membership fee from Oct.

 

[Mudball]

Additional average yearly power costs equating to the price of a top quality golf club membership fee from Oct.

Not everyone wants to be forced to be a member…

 

[Doon frae Troon]

Not everyone wants to be forced to be a member…

I would imagine a few members might be forced to not become a member though.

 

[Mudball]

I would imagine a few members might be forced to not become a member though.

They will have to wear knee high socks and extra jumper though.. the committee member says help is coming..

 

[D-S]

They will have to wear knee high socks and extra jumper though.. the committee member says help is coming..

At last a logic as to why knee high socks are a thing.

 

[Doon frae Troon]

They will have to wear knee high socks and extra jumper though.. the committee member says help is coming..

.........will he sort it all out when he gets back from holiday in October

 

[bobmac]

80% increase on your gas and electricity bill on October 1 on top of the 54% increase last April.
The predicted increase on Jan 1 2023 is a further 51% on top of the 80%

 

[road2ruin]

80% increase on your gas and electricity bill on October 1 on top of the 54% increase last April.
The predicted increase on Jan 1 2023 is a further 51% on top of the 80%

It’s getting to the point where these prices gap increases are meaningless to large numbers within the population. It won’t be a case of choosing not to pay, it’ll simply be that they can’t.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

It’s getting to the point where these prices gap increases are meaningless to large numbers within the population. It won’t be a case of choosing not to pay, it’ll simply be that they can’t.

…though some folks out there seem to think that the state should not be stepping in, that folks should sort themselves out; if they can’t earn more then cut back other spending and cut back on power usage…wear warm clothes indoors etc. Easy ?.

But seriously. We have known that this £3000+/yr day was coming since March when Martyn Lewis was telling what was almost 100% most likely to come to pass. It’s a shock just what it is, but surprised it’s over £3000…shouldn’t really be.

 

[PJ87]

…though some folks out there seem to think that the state should not be stepping in, that folks should sort themselves out; if they can’t earn more then cut back other spending and cut back on power usage…wear warm clothes indoors etc. Easy ?.

But seriously. We have known that this £3000+/yr day was coming since March when Martyn Lewis was telling what was almost 100% most likely to come to pass. It’s a shock just what it is, but surprised it’s over £3000…shouldn’t really be.

I think all of the big 6 players have been talking about a similar idea they are lobbying to ministers to help households during this

Freeze the price cap at current rate (£1900 which is already high) for 2 years. Backed by gov loan in the billions

Then that will be repaid either via taxation or a levy on bills for a decade or so

Tbh it seems a good idea

 

[BiMGuy]

I think all of the big 6 players have been talking about a similar idea they are lobbying to ministers to help households during this

Freeze the price cap at current rate (£1900 which is already high) for 2 years. Backed by gov loan in the billions

Then that will be repaid either via taxation or a levy on bills for a decade or so

Tbh it seems a good idea

Isn’t that just kicking the can down the road?

It doesn’t seem right to pile even more tax burden on a future generation to pay for a problem today. Especially given they will be paying the cost of Covid for a very long time.

 

[PJ87]

Isn’t that just kicking the can down the road?

It doesn’t seem right to pile even more tax burden on a future generation to pay for a problem today. Especially given they will be paying the cost of Covid for a very long time.

It may be kicking the can down the road but like covid without assistance millions will lose everything

With this energy crisis it's not just people's houses and jobs they could lose, they could seriously affect their health or worse.

 

[Mudball]

Isn’t that just kicking the can down the road?

It doesn’t seem right to pile even more tax burden on a future generation to pay for a problem today. Especially given they will be paying the cost of Covid for a very long time.

If you don’t kick it down, there won’t be any can left to kick. This is years of failed policy and lack of investment coming home to roost.

Alternatively, like Covid, we do lockdowns and people can assemble in heatbanks & foodbanks or in heated stables. This will bring out the spirit of the war. As one of the MPs tweeted .. Those of us brought up before central heating wore extra jumpers when winter came

Covid was a cataclysmic event, our energy policy is market driven event. Yes we will have more taxes, equally we will need growth - unleash Britain. Dare I say fix our borders. Extraordinary situations require extraordinary solutions.