Powergen price rises

[Zen]

No doubt you have all heared about the Powergen proposed price rises.Does any one know how UK energy prices compare with the rest of Europe ? Do you think it's time to renationalise the energy sector and reinvest the profits instead of the fat cat directors and shareholders getting it?

[buildersmate]

In 1992 I was paying 7.49p per unit of electricity. The price has just returned to this figure, 16 years later. In 1992 the whole industry was bloated with inefficiency and privatisation cut out much of the nonsense that existed in the days of the CEGB. I agree it also made, and continues to make a few people quite wealthy. I know which system benefits me as a customer, in spite of a few fat cats.

[Zen]

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,1 3130-2279374,00.html

Don't disagrre with your views on privatisation,but perhaps we should take similar stance to the Spanish government and at lleast keep the profits in the country.

[violetblue]

Yes, I do, but it'll never happen.

[Monster-S]

If everyone stopped paying it for a while then they would have to lower it .

[buildersmate]

If you mean if enough people stopped using electricity for a while, then true, because of supply and demand. But that would be pretty difficult to fix up.
If you meant a campaign of civil disobedience against paying the bill, it would surely not work.

[kev100]

In the 1980's the people of this country (to give them their proper name the morons) decided that services like gas, water, electricity and the telephone system would be cheaper to the consumer if it were privatised

So we now have to provide the same system plus an added 50% for profits for shareholders

Are we the stupidest ***** on earth or what?

[spainlads]

It wasn't the people, it was Mrs T.

[mash]

Privatisation was the only way the the government was realistically going to remove the waste from national utilities such as the CEGB. Since this time the costs of electricity and gas have been much lower due to the vast reduction in waste and therefore much lower costs of production (even with the shareholders cut in all this). The recent rises are not down to companies or shareholder seeking more profit they are down to short sighted investment and poor energy policies by sucessive governments which has now resulted in a UK reliance on oil and gas. Net result is oil prices rise, UK gas prices rise and UK electricity prices rise. Many UK energy companies are suffering big losses this year because of this situation.
High energy prices are here to stay, the postive news is that at least this will finally make us do something to change the way we manage our reliance on oil.