Energy price cap

Luckily road.cc doesn't need to be licenced - although maybe a breath test before posting might be useful?

Are you referring to the commenters or the staff?

I can only speak for myself.

So I can afford a £400 fuel bill for what sounds like for December and then for January if that is what it it is coming to - it's not what I'd prefer to spend my hard-earned on. I would quite like to stop soon as well. 

And everything we buy and use is affected - farmers, schools, hospitals. Everything goes up.

My Nan spent many an afternoon on a bench in her new local Arndale - free warmth and often company - are we going to go back to things like that?

It sounds like we've to this for a while, when/how does it end,  or is srchar right?

 I'm getting a sense of "that dog will have to go", not yet getting a sense of "that Audi will have to go". They're a quiet bunch and hard to read, but there must be fixed income households who won't be able to pay this sort of rate.

My predictions:

Increase in pressure on social services and the NHS this coming winter as frail people who would normally cope require treatment following hypothermia and malnutrition over periods of colder weather. I think there will be bed blocking as patients will be unable to be discharged back into those same circumstances and dumping of relatives who require extra care; heating, washing of bedding, support from plugged in equipment etc.

Personal insolvencies rocketing, debt spiralling, credit harder to come by for those now at higher risk of defaulting.

Increased suicides and mental health illnesses.

Knock on effects in cost of food and other essential items that cannot be offset by shopping around or living off pasta.

Reduction of council tax revenue as heating and eating take priority in household budgets that cannot possibly cover all essential costs. Leading to even more stress on social services funding.

Return to a cash economy and unregulated employment arrangements with implications for criminality, exploitation and tax evasion.

Increasing sense of injustice. I think we will see organised protests and even civil disobedience if enough people end up with nothing to lose.

I'm thinking of buying a bunker, a crate of baked beans and some sort of system that can turn urine back into fresh water.

A good description of the risks here and how they may well play out. People are going to die if there is prolonged cold.  Scotland will likely do something - whether they're allowed to/the UK govt likes it or not. Significant numbers of people cut off from the grid will trigger the unrest you describe. 

I wouldn't want to be flashing wealth with a 71 Evoque at a time like that, any more than showing an emerald green lawn in these conditions now (my local football club grrr).  My solar battery shuts down in a power cut, but if I overcome that I still would be wary after dark of showing a bright light or TV when everyone around me is off. 

Government (attitude: "you're free: free to starve") off-line until September to bring about some mitigation of all that you describe.

yep, the demise of the Feed-in-Tariff obliterated the already marginal financial case for domestic solar... https://neweconomics.org/2018/04/the-war-on-solar/

That link doesnt substantiate your statement.  Especially at 2022 leccy prices.

This article is better balanced.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/free-solar-panels

The difference is you used to be able to make money generating solar with the higher feed in prices.

The payment (5.5p per kWh) for exported power shows what a one-sided rip-off this now. 

That's just the price that generators get paid.

Look at the latest CfDs for solar. About 4.5p/kWh.

While FIT were great for the homeowners able to benefit from them they were essentially just a way of passing money from all bill payers (including the poorest) to (usually wealthy) solar panel owners.

FIT made electricity more expensive for everyone other than the lucky few who could afford to install the panels.

I'm one less user drawing from the grid when all the demand for aircon threatens us all with blackouts.  On sunny days, I put out 2-3 times what I use. If I generate 15 kWh, I cover that day's energy standing charges - riches indeed. I started in February, so haven't yet experienced the horror of December and January. 

I'm hoping to be joining you soon, have put down a deposit on a system and just waiting on it now.

Will probably be in place just in time for winter at this rate!

We were 6 months from ordering to switch-on. Get a battery. Consider if you want an island circuit - sold separately, I think. I haven't yet found an electrician able to do this. 

I've gone for some custom shaped panels to fit more on but, unsurprisingly, that's meant a longer wait.

Hopefully be on by end of the year.

I would like an island circuit, didn't realise it was tricky to do (clearly I'm not an electrician!), will start asking around for quotes now. Cheers for the heads up.

Unfortunately we are an end terrace house with a gabled roof with the main roof area pointing north so no real chance to have decent Solar outputs otherwise would have gone for it years ago.

That's the default Smart Export Guarantee, and your choice.

You can choose a tariff which pays the market wholesale rate for exports.

The downside is that you may get burnt in winter when you buy from the grid and demand exceeds supply, when you will pay a higher price.

Alternatively you can self-consume (even timeshifted with a house battery).

In a (even currently struggling due to the supply constraints we all know about) free market with a diversity of suppliers you have a choice.

On your separate point on feed-in tariffs, the case is that solar had developed sufficiently for high subsidies to be unnecessary - that rent-a-roof entrepreneurs built fortunes of 10s of millions on the back of high FITs suggests that that was probably a good decision.

mdavidford wrote:

The bigger question is how much luft can you get on your energy price cap?

It's almost worth a cost of living crisis just for that

TheBillder wrote:

The idea was to protect people who had either never switched from the old gas and electricity board tariffs, or were coming off a fixed price, from punitive costs caused by ignorance of switching or inertia. It could never insulate people fully from global price hikes without regulating the entire energy process. The most interesting thing was how the policy developed within the Conservative Party. When suggested by Ed Milliband, it was Dangerous Socialism. By the time of the next election, it was Tory policy. Odd.

TheBillder wrote:

The most interesting thing was how the policy developed within the Conservative Party. When suggested by Ed Milliband, it was Dangerous Socialism. By the time of the next election, it was Tory policy. Odd.

So if the Conservatives have stolen New Labour policy maybe Labour might move towards 'Old' Labour and remember how they got their name.

Given how Mick Lynch has recently performed in interviews showing complete and utter contempt for the media and politicians alike he seems a perfect candidate for the leaders job which is currently held by, you know, that guy in a suit, whatshisname. It'll come to me eventually.

NOtotheEU wrote:

TheBillder wrote:

The most interesting thing was how the policy developed within the Conservative Party. When suggested by Ed Milliband, it was Dangerous Socialism. By the time of the next election, it was Tory policy. Odd.

So if the Conservatives have stolen New Labour policy maybe Labour might move towards 'Old' Labour and remember how they got their name.

Given how Mick Lynch has recently performed in interviews showing complete and utter contempt for the media and politicians alike he seems a perfect candidate for the leaders job which is currently held by, you know, that guy in a suit, whathisname. It'll come to me eventually.

Keith something?

NOtotheEU wrote:

So if the Conservatives have stolen New Labour policy maybe Labour might move towards 'Old' Labour and remember how they got their name.

Given how Mick Lynch has recently performed in interviews showing complete and utter contempt for the media and politicians alike he seems a perfect candidate for the leaders job which is currently held by, you know, that guy in a suit, whatshisname. It'll come to me eventually.

What we really need is a new party fronted by Lynch and Corbyn pushing a strong socialist agenda to redress the balance somewhat. Labour is now just Tory-lite.