Originally Posted by Sirius (Post 35634471)

I don't need to explain the rest of the rises, anyone with half a brain knows they are to feed more money to shareholders. But the second that idiot Milliband said he was going to sort them out and halt there price rises, just like any bully they retaliated with even more bullying. This price rise is just them saying you have no chance of stopping us and if you try this is what we will do. Problem is thats thanks to the idiot we are all paying for it.

Originally Posted by heero_yuy (Post 35634485)

Wrong. EU membership means that once VAT is put on ANYTHING it can never be removed. 5% is the lowest rate our masters in Brussels permit.

Originally Posted by Damien (Post 35634488)

France is a member of the EU and has relatively cheap energy because they built nuclear power plants decades before. This is our own fault and we need to address it.

Originally Posted by Damien (Post 35634488)

The cost of fuel is down to the fact he didn't build new power plants 5/10/15/20 years ago. France is a member of the EU and has relatively cheap energy because they built nuclear power plants decades before. This is our own fault and we need to address it.

Originally Posted by Sirius (Post 35634496)

We now have the issue in this country that any major project is held up for years and years in red tape and protests whilst we fight the following group :)

Greens
Tree huggers
Toad protectors
Green belt protectors
We will complain about any major project group
NIMBY's amalgamated
The Liberal Democrats
Any group who does not like anything they dont understand

So any new power stations might be built at the end of the next century :LOL:

Originally Posted by heero_yuy (Post 35634501)

You do realise that over 60% of the cost of transport fuel is down to El Govs taxes and duty?

And who was it that invented the fuel duty escalator and the beer tax escalator?

Originally Posted by Damien (Post 35634488)

No you should explain the rest of the raises because it makes your rant illogical otherwise. If your contention is that this rate raise is a anomaly as a result of Miliband then you need to answer why all the previous rate raises occurred when he hadn't said these things.

Why did British Gas raise their prices 6% last year: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19921042 ?

Why did they raise their prices 16%! the year before that:
http://www.britishgas.co.uk/blog/201...energy-prices/ ?

Why did they raise their price by 7% the year before that: http://www.britishgas.co.uk/blog/201...-announcement/ ?


Every year they raise prices but this time it's because of Ed Miliband?

---------- Post added at 18:22 ---------- Previous post was at 18:19 ----------



OK. I concede that. So one of the green taxes and the 5% VAT is down to the EU but it still leaves a lot that isn't.

The cost of fuel is down to the fact he didn't build new power plants 5/10/15/20 years ago. France is a member of the EU and has relatively cheap energy because they built nuclear power plants decades before. This is our own fault and we need to address it.

Originally Posted by Damien (Post 35634509)

Nor can Green levies since they've been there years.

Originally Posted by martyh (Post 35634515)

SSE say they have gone up from last year though

Originally Posted by Damien (Post 35634520)

Apparently they went up £10.

Originally Posted by martyh (Post 35634524)

i've no idea ,and i'm as confused as the "energy experts" that where on the radio on friday ,they also have no idea what could justify such a rise so i still think that the energy companies are showing the gov who's the boss

Originally Posted by Damien (Post 35634530)

They rise every year. It's either profiteering, reflecting a genuine increase in operation and investment costs or an increase in wholesale prices, as well as the portion which are Green taxes (which seem to be about 10%). Probably all three. I doubt they did it as a political decision as it doesn't make sense, it only increases the pressure on the Government to act. If they are simply making massive margins then isn't this what competition is meant to solve? Someone could come in and undercut those margins drastically after all...

Wholesale Energy prices do seem to be increasing: http://www.consumerfocus.org.uk/poli...-retail-prices

It is quite difficult to get a clear idea. For a start we don't know exactly what the energy companies actually pay...

Originally Posted by martyh (Post 35634539)

You're probably correct but the cynic in me is screaming that they are getting what they can while they can.

Originally Posted by Damien (Post 35634543)

OK This seems to be the structure of the typical UK energy bill:

https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/ofgem-publi...uly2013web.pdf

Gas:

Wholesale: 67%
Distribution Costs: 16%
'Transmission' costs: 2%
VAT: 5%
Green Taxes: 6%
Other Costs: 4%

Electricity:


Wholesale: 58%
Distribution Costs: 16%
'Transmission' costs: 4%
VAT: 5%
Green Taxes: 11%
Other Costs: 5%

Some places seem to put 'Other Costs' (Ofgem describes this as the cost of electric meters, storage and so on) as a 'Green Tax' so that raises to 10% and 16% respectively or 15% and 21% if you wack VAT onto that as well but the actual green policies are included in the Green Tax figures (minus the poverty taxes as well)/

Originally Posted by TheDaddy (Post 35634553)

Tell your inner cynic to pipe down, the top five guys at british gas are paid fifteen million between them, they aren't silly enough to ignore the fact that just about the only thing that resonated with the public during conference season was the fuel cap, if anything their hike will encourage other parties to adopt similar policies or for Dave to tell us all to switch :rolleyes: