Energy bills are about to climb 9%, just as millions of pensioners see their Winter Fuel Payment, worth up to £300, disappear. The Express has the details.
Industry experts are predicting the cap on tariffs will rise in October through to January as millions turn on their heating to survive the winter chill.
Analysts at Cornwall Insight are predicting the increase in the price cap tariff means the annual bill – based on typical use – will rise £146 taking it up from £1,568 to £1,714.
It also believes that – based on current movements in wholesale prices – that there will be another small increase in January through to March.
The increases come at the same time as the Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced that the Winter Fuel Payment – worth £200-£300 – has been axed for many pensioners. …
Fuel poverty campaigners have sounded the alarm over the removal of the Winter Fuel Payment at the same time as bills are rising.
They have warned it could amount to a death sentence for sick and vulnerable people who will go cold this winter.
There are also concerns that the Household Support Fund (HSF), which offers grants to helps people on low incomes who are experiencing hardship or crisis, will be axed.
Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, warned: “The reality is that bills will go up compared to today and will be around 65% higher than they were before the energy bills crisis started.
“But instead of offering help, the Government has axed winter fuel payments to millions and refuses to confirm if the Household Support Fund will be extended.”
Worth reading in full.
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“Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, warned: “The reality is that bills will go up compared to today and will be around 65% higher than they were before the energy bills crisis started.
“But instead of offering help, the Government has axed winter fuel payments to millions and refuses to confirm if the Household Support Fund will be extended.””
Clear demonstration of how hopeless the situation is. Energy is expensive because of successive stupid/evil policy decisions, but the answer is more taxpayers’ money.
The idea of higher prices in a functioning market economy is to reduce consumption when demand exceeds supply.
The whole problem is the industry cannot supply enough to meet demand because of Government lunatic Net Zero.
Winter fuel payments are not the solution. The solution is to get rid of Governments who insist on the Net Zero ruination.
Since the nation voted in plurality for the three Parties committed to this idiocy, or failed to vote at all to oust them and to vote for the one Party that would stop the madness, then the People are getting what they deserve. Stop belly-aching.
Indeed. Sadly most voters appear to be economically illiterate as well as addicted to wanting to be told what to do and have other people supposedly solve all of life’s problems for them. I think prosperity has addled people’s brains.
You’ve never had it so good!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/20/newsid_3728000/3728225.stm
(1957)
That some subset of the people residing legally in the UK voted in some way certainly doesn’t mean everybody must be happy with all consequences of the outcome.
There is no energy crisis accept the man made one. Plenty of fossil fuel available, nuclear as well.
Can you imagine the BBC’s reaction if the Winter Fuel Payment had been axed by the conservative government? For weeks they would have been going on about it, with carefully selected old age pensioners shown in the most pitiful light, endless interviews, special analysis about how badly this affects the most vulnerable, Tory cuts, austerity, the cruelty and heartless attitude of the rich elite.., and so on, and so forth.
But the same policy introduced by Labour and it’s presented without any criticism, then the subject is quickly dropped.
I believe my winter fuel payment should be given to Zelensky and his neo nazis who need it more than me. / sarc
Zelensky is a Jew. This means whatever his supporters might be, they’re certainly not Nazis, neither neo nor of any other kind.
You must have missed seeing his army and their nazi insignias!! When was the last time he worshipped anything other than money? Next time look a little further into Ukraine and their neo nazis and their love of Bandera rather than believe main stream media!
If you think “the Jew and his Nazi supporters!” makes any sense, that’s not because I’m missing something.
Don’t forget they have to pay for this insanity:
Labour investment in cycling and walking will be unprecedented, says Louise Haigh | Transport policy | The Guardian
My own council, one of the poorest in the country, has budgeted £40m for “active travel”! OK, some is for interchange/station upgrades but most of it is for ridiculous cycle lanes from nowhere to nowhere. They recently floated the idea of a Dutch roundabout but, miraculously, backed off when it was ridiculed for our circumstances.
Too cold in your property? Get on your bike and risk life and limb on busy, unsuitable-for-cycling roads till you get to the nearest cycle lane. What’s not to like?
According to the above article more cycle lanes will increase women’s safety. Err, could somebody connect the dots for me?
“Transport is] … essential for delivering growth and obviously net zero and safer streets, safety on public transport networks, safety for women cycling down dark alleyways: they can’t do any of it without transport.”
No, me neither.
Perhaps rapists don’t ride bicycles?
Oh, I never thought of that.
Irrelevant: they’ve only got to tie a piece of string across the dark alleyway and those cycling women will be off their bikes and on the floor …. indefensible and ready for the non-cycling rapist.
I raised this very issue on a proposed 5m link between towns. The responsible official shrugged off my concern with “it’ll be lit”. It won’t but they don’t care because the money keeps rolling in.
I know from experience that walking and cycling lobby have an open door to councils and when doing statutory consultations for changes their groups were included but where were other user groups. Regulations required consultation with buses and with the RHA and FTA but neither of these latter groups have the resources to study all the consultations they receive from the whole of the UK. The AA and RAC are commercial organisations far removed from their foundation. I added the two main motorcycle groups, BMF and MAG to my City of London consultations.
This nonsense has been going on for a while. 10 years ago my manager at work came to ask us all if we wanted to participate in a “Cycle to Work Scheme”. This was another one of those daft SNP/Green initiatives, where apparently we would all be given a bicycle and could pay it back weekly from our wages. I said to my boss “Are you having a laugh, are you seriously asking me to leave my car in the drive and cycle to work in the sleet wind and rain in our dismal Scottish climate? ——-No more was ever said about the group think pretend to save the planet madness.
Net zero is a socialist utopia that will freeze many elderly to death.
“Net zero is a socialist utopia that will freeze many elderly to death.”
Deliberately.
But they always do
if you want a shortage of any good, the best way is to introduce a price cap.
Supply/demand/price. If demand exceeds supply, prices go up. The normal response to this is consumers use less, suppliers supply more and as supply and demand move nearer to balance, prices come down.
That’s how a free market economy works if left alone – but then Government intervenes.
The reason energy prices are increasing is Net Zero, carbon tax, unsustainable supply from unreliable, intermittent wind/solar, disincentive to invest in gas generation and no possibility to build coal fired power stations.
Since a price cap caps revenue but not expenses, suppliers will reduce expenses by reducing output or go bankrupt. Wind/solar are already technically bankrupt without subsidies, and they too will have to reduce participation in supply to avoid uncovered expense.
Advice: buy blankets and candles.
Looks like the Government is intending another cull of the vulnerable elderly this winter. What a marvellous way of reducing the cost of the State Pension.
Apparently (only read it on X/Twitter) a barrel of oil cost the UK about 100 dollars.
Some of that is actually Russian oil, bought from India.
That’s how sanctions against Russia work. Lol.
And if that’s not bad enough, we could buy oil for only 50 dollars a barrrel – from Iraq/Iran.
Mind you, Uncle Sam gets it for free from parts of Syria.
Geopolitics in all its glory.
The Energy Communists in the Labour Party led from the front by Miliband promise “cheaper bills”. ——I guarantee you all now that this will never materialise. They are bare faced liars and bills are only ever going to go in one direction ——–UP. —I am afraid that pretending to save the planet does not come cheap, and every time you see a member of the Energy Communist Party say that “Renewables are now cheaper than Fossil Fuels” you are being told a pack of lies deliberately. These people do not work for you. They work for the UN/WEF who think your lifestyle is “unsustainable” and want to do something about that. They will lower your standard of living, because that is what Sustainable Development is all about.
I’m a 78 year old pensioner. I have an electric blanked made for the sofa or chair. It uses little more than the old 100 watt light bulb. I warm myself, not the room. The only problem is that I have to fight with the cat for it
You still got to keep your house aired, to stop the black mould etc.