energy bill

But the other impact, which I think they will, I think, be very cognizant of, is this government has pledged to help people with the cost of living.

There's already £2 billion of unfunded cost of living protection that's already been put in on energy bills.

And because this inflation is being driven almost... mostly by the cost of oil and gas, that's going to result in an increase in energy costs for every household as of October the 1st.

And then again on January the 1st, the expectation is that's going to go up by several hundred pounds just because we import so much of our oil and gas.

I guess I've got two questions.

The first is in the '90s, what impact does this have on people's energy bills?

After privatization, you do get for about the first maybe five to 10 years, you do get a, uh, reduction in like the cost.

But, but basically that's because they're asset stripping.

And yeah, as a result, we end up in this situation where we don't actually have a functioning competitive market that drives the price down.

We have a sort of entity that's protected and able to extract a higher amount of profit from the system because of those sorts of fears and those, those failures.

And that's what a lot of people are calling for nationalization are saying, is that introduces this kind of bloatation that is driving up energy bills.

And then if we move to the kind of retail side of the equation, we're talking about, you know, your, the Octopuses of, of the world and companies that sell us energy.

So he has to deal with small boats, he has to deal with defense, and of course, he has to deal with the cost of living, uh, which is going to get higher if the Iran war continues.

And analysts have warned that in the new year, energy bills could rise by another 9%.

So what's he gonna do about that?

Well, he's already done something, which was to try and remove the VAT from some of them, not realizing that they were going up anyway.

So do you remember when we kept on being told that we're going to save £300 on our energy bills?

Mm.

Don't know about you, but I haven't seen that dosh.

Mm.

I went full tilt because I knew I was going to be in my house for a long time.

And I also recognised that when I sell my house on, if I can sell people, your energy bills are going to be actually... a lot lower every month here it's it adds value and all of that but what's really exciting is starting to and it is exciting because as i said i sit and i watch that app and i work out every day how much money i'm saving and i love it and i think it's that is that new products coming onto the market like um balcony solar and all that it's that that's how people are going to chew away at their energy bills we do need you know balcony solar is brilliant if you live in particular areas of the country If you're in Shetland where it's twice as dark for twice as long and twice as cold, that's quite literally cold comfort.

So we need to think very hard about what are the micro-renewable solutions for domestic set up that are easy to install, that will make a difference here and now and just chew through people's electricity bills and allow them to try and at least be part of that fighting front against energy

costs.

That's for a typical dual fuel household paying by direct debit.

But they've actually changed the calculation because energy bills have been so high, the usage has been pushed down.

So the average bill is dropping purely because people are using less.

So if we were using the same calculations as previously, then the price cap would be £1,935 per year.

So it's a worry that people are using less energy.

I think if people were using excess energy and they're choosing to lose less, then that's one thing.

But as a constituency MP, I know that people are enduring cold and hardship within their homes because they can't afford their energy bills.

And actually, there's quite a lot of elderly and vulnerable people who actually probably can afford their energy bills, but they are so petrified of going into debt, they're taking risks with their health in a cold house because energy, domestic energy and commercial energy in the United Kingdom is out of control.

And then after the break, we're going to come back to that.

Well, we've touched on this question of energy bills because there's obviously a lot happening in the news this week on that question.

And I've got a feeling it's going to blow up politically.

But first, a quick break.

We're talking on this episode about climate change, asking whether we've changed our minds at all in terms of how we view this entire subject because of the particularly hot summer and continual repeated heat waves.

Miranda, just on the...

This question of energy bills and the price cap going up.

I mean, there's always a danger, isn't there, with politics that you can have a sophisticated discussion about it and trade-offs, but really, ultimately, when it comes down to it, if people see their bills going up, they get furious.

Let's do this one.

Energy bills will soar by at least £260 over the next decade.

In fact, by 2030, it is thought.

due to Ed Miliband's and his successor's ongoing net zero zealotry.

Why do these Labour politicians, why does Andy Burnham, this government, assume that we're OK with this? You know, what do they think we are? Stupid.

I mean, do they think we haven't noticed that this madman, this lunatic Ed Miliband, you know, when he was nut zero secretary, has taken the economy to the brink of bankruptcy, has given us the highest, the largest energy bills in the Western world by a long chalk, something like five times more expensive than energy bills in the United States.

Do they think we haven't noticed? Do they think that we don't know that this terrible predicament that we're in is all down to their ludicrous ideological zealotry? Do they think we don't know that?

No, but I think that this gets to the heart of what's wrong with so much inside the British state at the moment, that they do know, and either in the case of Ed Miliband, he's obviously just a mad zealot who really is excited probably for his career after Parliament, where he will fly around on all the private jets that he hates so much, going and speaking at conferences in beautiful resorts that he pretends to dislike so much, lecturing the rest of us about how you're going to have to eat bugs and give up on your easy jet trips and all the rest of it.

And there's going to be some, I think, some more winter bill shock this winter again, unfortunately.

And this, of course, coming at a time when we know that a record number of people are already in arrears on their energy bills.

They are.

So recent figures from the energy regulator, the CRU, for May now show that around 330,000 electricity customers and 190,000 gas customers are behind on their bills.