Lower electric / gas bills

[friedgreentomato]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2235494/David-Cameron-WILL-force-electricity-gas-firms-offer-customer-lowest-price.html

So Cameron is to be applauded for trying his hardest to get lower tariffs and cheaper bills for customers, but he needs to remember that there are a large % of people that have no choice but purchase oil for heating and cooking!

In the last 7 years I have seen the price more than double from 30p a litre to 67p. It has now got to the point where I can only put the heating on once a day as it would otherwise cost me over £300 ever 8 weeks!

Will Cameron look at these costings i wonder?

[tonyav]

I wouldn't hold your breath on that one fgt although yes he should, Jaysus £300 over 8 weeks.

[ummmm]

Are you heating all the rooms?

[friedgreentomato]

We do not have all the radiators turned on, we only heat the rooms we use - we have the boiler serviced every year.

[ummmm]

In my last house I paid £120 a month for gas. Prices have risen since then so would probably be a similar amount.

[LoftyLottie]

With you on this Helen. Using the wood burner which fortunately heats a lot of the house. Trying to make do without the central heating, but it's not easy.

By the way, Have you tried Boiler Juice for your oil supply. I saved over £40.00 on my last delivery. Excellent service too.

[LoftyLottie]

(And I am spending a lot of the day in my thick fleecy PJ's!! ;o)

[ummmm]

I live without central heating. I find it quite easy, although it wasn't at first.

[LoftyLottie]

Difficult for me ummmm with Fibromyalgia and Arthritis. I need warmth on my poor aching body!! ;o)

[friedgreentomato]

I will have a look at Boiler juice lofty - thank you.

We have to use the fires to heat the downstairs - and I appreciate that it is my choice to live in my house but believe me the rent is a lot cheaper than the modern houses.

I just feel that he should be looking at this as well.

[ummmm]

Yes, that's different :-(

[weecalf]

simple the goverment does not want us to have money .we have to eat so food prices go .we have to travel so petrol /diesel goes up .need electric it goes up .so if any of these go down then watch one of the others will go up .

[LazyGun]

The devil will be in the detail. Such an initiative conforms to the mantra that choice is the holy grail, and that choice will drive down costs and increase competition. It also saves Mr. Camerons blushes, since he made the announcement in the House without consulting anyone else in the cabinet first.

Offering a simplified tariff structure should make it easier to do some comparison shopping, but how effective such an initiative will be remains to be determined.

Personally, I think it will have little or no effect, and there are other more pressing reasons why the cost of energy has risen so sharply - reasons that will not be addressed by this, mostly cosmetic measure - but I hope I am pleasantly surprised.

[pdq1]

What a daft idea from Cameron. Many people are on the lowest tariffs because of their circumstances. To give middle and upper earners a discount means the lower tariff will have to rise. He doesn't expect the power companies to take less profits does he???

[youngmafbog]

There are no discounts pdq, it's the same price as is now. All it means is that if you come off a good tarif when the deal ends they will have to put you on the lowest tariff not the highest one.

And I would argue that it has nothing to do with income, many middle earners probably have the nouse, and the measn to be able to find the deals anyway.

[pdq1]

Young.... I know of a couple on the Spreading Warmth tariff with Npower. This tariff is not available to the normal user and you have to fit a special criteria. It is much lower than the standard tariff.

If the companies are restricted to just 4 tariffs that tariff will almost certainly go.