Gas Tariff

[KARL]

Does anyone know of a supplier that offers a gas tariff without a daily standing charge ?

[Mamyalynne]

Some discussion here, not sure if helpful though.


http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/electricity-standing-charge

[Buenchico]

I think that you'll be out of luck.

Several energy suppliers used to offer 'low user' tariffs that charged slightly higher than usual per unit of gas (or electricity) but without a standing charge, so that very light users of energy (or, say, people who only used their holiday homes occasionally) paid lower bills.

However OfGem ruled against them and demanded fewer tariffs, with everyone having to pay for their electricity/gas connection through a standing charge. So the energy companies were forced to abandon their 'low user' tariffs and obliged to charge everyone the standing charge.

For example, I used to pay only around £30 per year for my limited use of gas (with British Gas) but OfGem's ruling has put that up to around £100 per year, with British Gas having no say in the matter.

[woofgang]

I gather that the low user tariff issue was to protect the elderly from not using their heating when they needed to in order to retain their low user status

[gingejbee]

...I regard a "standing charge" to be fair. No matter how little (or how much) gas you use, you still need the pipework to your home, meter, maintenance of infrastructure etc - covered by a fixed standing charge.

[KARL]

To explain: We do not use any gas at all and the outlet from the meter is capped. I want to keep the meter in case in the future we want to use some and/or future owners want to install any gas appliances. Thus, any standing charge would be levied purely for the presence of a meter - if we had the meter removed to avoid a standing charge, not only would everything else remain unchanged (pipes, valves, etc.) but also a team of men would have to be sent out to remove and dispose of it (free to us although somebody pays). Instead we have (until next month) been on a fixed dual supply tariff for many years with no standing charge on the gas, but now that supplier will start to charge a standing charge. Hence my question.

Thanks to Mamyalynne I have located a possible alternative gas supplier and a using a separate supplier for electricity will work out cheapest by a comfortable margin.