I’m often wrong, so please tell me if you disagree, but in my experience there’s nothing which will drain the energy from landlords more… than energy itself.
Though telecoms maybe pushes it hard for top spot!
Whether it’s excuses and denials of responsibility for promises not delivered, call centres where you never get an answer nor speak to the same person twice…
…or my current and ongoing biggest bug bear of price rises, energy has the power to take the steam out of all of our businesses.
And I don’t see any prospect of it changing. I read with interest last week in a Wall Street Journal blog that the UK is set to become more dependent on natural gas… just as a key import source of it dries up!
Analysts say this could leave us facing 50% higher natural gas prices next winter at a time when industry is already struggling to remain competitive and consumer spending power is falling.
Apparently, one of our largest utilities, inevitably under foreign ownership as an arm of Germany’s E.ON, has said it’s going to close its 1,940 megawatt Kingsnorth power plant in a year to comply with environmental legislation.
That’s no great surprise, as its coal-fired, belching out tonnes of carbon dioxide. But alternatives aren’t coming on stream fast enough.
Expensive and complicated nuclear power, which for years has been the central plank of the UK’s plan for carbon-free electricity, is moving forward at a snail’s pace. And we’ve given up control over it.
More than three years after French giant EDF completed its takeover of nuclear power producer British Energy not a single extra plant has been given the go ahead.
Why should we expect it to serve our national British interest. It’s French, after all.
And I’m not being xenophobic. You’ve just got to ask yourself where the real dangers for Britain lie today. Are they in Afghanistan and the threat of Iran developing a nuclear programme? Or in having sold off all control over our energy and steel production?
Sorry for that tangential moan and let’s get back to energy.
The Guardian reported that plans for wind farms equivalent to four large traditional coal and nuclear power stations have quietly been shelved by the government amid growing public and political anger over the cost and sight of the turbines.
So, in the absence of alternatives, it seems gas-fired plants are most likely to fill the gap and hence the horrendous expected price hike.
Already there’s an outcry among consumers and businesses alike at soaring prices and energy profits
Npower – this one’s owned by German utility giant RWE – which supplies more than six million customers in the UK, sparked fresh anger last week, according to Sky, after unveiling a 34% leap in profits.
And that in a year when it hiked average tariffs for gas by 15.7% and electricity by 7.2% last October – though it has since lowered gas bills by 5%.
So what can we do about it if the ‚”Big Six” are holding us hostage? http://www.compareprepaid.co.uk/cards/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/UK-pensioners
We buy our energy based on the current wholesale market prices in advance so we can offer fixed tariffs for up to three years. This helps our customers to budget accurately and offer bills-inclusive rents.
I guess it’s just my way of trying to regain some control over my future since successive governments have sold off our natural assets and critical infrastructure and utilities, leaving us vulnerable to events outside our borders.
Perhaps you think differently. Let me know either way, as I’m game for a debate!