Wednesday 27 March 2013

"Energy price rises 'reduce bill rises'"

From the BBC:

Energy policies which increase price rises this year will cushion consumers from future price rises, but only after consumers have paid in advance for lower percentage increases from a higher base rather than a larger percentage from a smaller base contributing to a rise in average household bills but only if you compare it with a third set of figures which assume larger rises from a larger base and which ignore the fact that part of the future price increases have been front loaded to the present, a report has said.

But it's all right now

By 2020, bills will be 11% - or £166 - lower than they would otherwise have been, but about £300 higher than they were a few years ago but they are still a lot less than they will be in five years time so actually the consumer is making a saving now and should be really happy at how cheap his fuel is, these are the good old days on which we will look back fondly, according to the Department of Energy and Climate Change's report. If you look at it that way, consumers are currently getting a massive discount, making them £100s a year better off.

In fact it's a gas

It looked at policies such as a drive to boost home insulation and promote energy efficient boiler installation. It also looked at policies to drive up the cost of domestic fuel to households. And chose the latter.

But quite expensive gas, obviously

Labour accused the government of doing exactly what they would be doing if they were still in government.

5 comments:

The Hickory Wind said...

Mark,

Apologies for being completely O/T but this made my flesh creep even more than usual.

Government rules to make broadband cheaper...

How can it possibly go wrong...

Mark Wadsworth said...

CI, it's a tricky topic, and like most EU pronouncements it's a mixture of the seemingly sensible (utilities to share tunnels), the idiotic and the subsidies for their mates (rural landowners and the large corporates).

And of course none of this makes it cheaper for the end user, it might widen the availability of broadband from densely populated to sparsely populated areas, is all.

View from the Solent said...

"By 2020, bills will be 11% - or £166 - lower than they would otherwise have been ...."
Because, as they'll be so high, people will have to use less since that £166 will be beyond the reach of their wallet.

Bob E said...

VFTS - The big problem for DECC is that they do a bunch of sums to "prove" the bills will be lower than they would have been yada yada yada, and then a few weeks later, when they do them again, they get a different LOWER figure for how much lower bills are going to be at some distant point than they would have been but for yada yada - the rate at which energy bills are not increasing as fast as they would otherwise have done keeps slowing down. So they have to sit down and do yet another "let's prove how Energy will cost less in a quarter century from now than it otherwise will cost because" exercise and publish that. There must be a dedicated DECC team working on this 24/7 - well no they wouldn't be doing it 24/7, in the interests of energy saving they would only get together during daylight hours when they could clearly see all the balls on the abacus, but no doubt all their daylight hours are devoted to it ... otherwise

The Hickory Wind said...

@Mark

Thanks for answering. There was a lot of magic statism about it- we decree that this shall happen- we shall make thinge cheaper by increasing the costs on suppliers- we shall then fine or jail people (we're not sure who yet) when it doesn't happen- it's all Margart Thatcher's fault...

I have this vision of being offered, in a few years time, a dial-up connection, with access to literally dozens of state-approved sites (the ones that have got through the paperwork and found a civil servant at his desk) at ten times the price I pay now for broadband. I am not sanguine about the future of the net.