UK Energy Costs

[Neon Ignition]

There's loads about whether it will be worse than the 2008 recession but it's bound to be infinitely worse, right?

The COVID years already wiped many out so this one isn't happening on the back of an earning period of years.

[Asura]

There's loads about whether it will be worse than the 2008 recession but it's bound to be infinitely worse, right?

The COVID years already wiped many out so this one isn't happening on the back of an earning period of years.

It's really ****, too, because no-one but the genuinely super-wealthy will escape this. We're going to see a massive rise in crime.

[Neon Ignition]

Solar farm plans refused at highest rate for five years in Great Britain | Solar power | The Guardian

[Asura]

Solar farm plans refused at highest rate for five years in Great Britain | Solar power | The Guardian

Well of course they were.

I hate to keep saying this, as I know everyone here understands it - but we live on a (comparably) densely populated island with some of the highest land values in the world, outside of city-states.

All the spacious land in the country is owned by the wealthy, who NIMBY everything. They don't want windfarms or solar panels visible from their Grand Design that looks like a Tesco Extra in a field.

[Cassius_Smoke]

There is nothing I can say...

https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/energy-boss-6m-770000-payday-27836218

[Cassius_Smoke]

80% increase coming in October

https://news.sky.com/story/energy-bills-to-soar-for-millions-as-price-cap-hiked-to-3549-12681213

[Golgo]

Utterly obscene. It's astonishing that the energy suppliers are now leading the charge for a prize cap freeze (i.e. an actual cap), as they've woken up to the fact that the imminent widespread defaults on payments from people who simply cannot afford to pay are going to bring them down, and they will end up with nothing.

[beecee]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62652133

SMH

[Neon Ignition]

Might as well make the energy cap £1m per month, they're just as likely to see peoples direct debits successfully clear each month

[teddymeow]

Utterly obscene. It's astonishing that the energy suppliers are now leading the charge for a prize cap freeze (i.e. an actual cap), as they've woken up to the fact that the imminent widespread defaults on payments from people who simply cannot afford to pay are going to bring them down, and they will end up with nothing.

I saw this. When the companies who provide the energy are calling for a freeze you know that there's something really ****ed up going on.

[Cassius_Smoke]

And let's all do a merry jig knowing that the bills will rise again in January! Yey!

Any reason for the rise in January? Nope, they just said it will, so it will!

[Asura]

I saw this. When the companies who provide the energy are calling for a freeze you know that there's something really ****ed up going on.

Why do they need a freeze? Can't they just lower their prices on their own? The government can't freeze the wholesale price; that's interfering with the market which they've told us for decades is a bad thing.

[Asura]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62652133

SMH

Not that mysterious. I immediately assumed this was like when farmers were dumping the milk during the pandemic. Sometimes its easier for a business to continue to manufacture their product, then waste it, than to stop manufacturing it.

Steel blast furnaces operate continuously. If shut down, they cost millions to start again.

[Golgo]

Why do they need a freeze? Can't they just lower their prices on their own? The government can't freeze the wholesale price; that's interfering with the market which they've told us for decades is a bad thing.

Not freeze the wholesale price, freeze the cap, i.e. government would pick up the tab for any incoming rises above the last cap and we'd pay it back long term (like 10+ years). Given the cost of defaults, court proceedings to chase payment money that isn't there, business failures, loss of tax revenues, fall in consumer spending, and increases to welfare support - all of which will result from doing nothing - the 100 billion quoted for the government to suck this up would be good value. It would also put a brake on inflation. It's a complete no-brainer at this apocalyptic stage - hence completely off the table as far as the Tories are concerned.

[Neon Ignition]

The worst thing about the £100bn price tag is the Government keeps calling it a bad move yet their own plan is going to eclipse this cost. This is how monumentally stupid a situation we're in, they're going to literally cart bodies out of frozen and unfed homes out of sheer stubborness