£571 Million in Profit

[Win2Win]

...So why the :censored: has my bill just gone up about 15%? I don't remembering it going down :doh

OFF should know this, how much bearing does that 15% have on inflation? As it should be plenty, as it certainly puts 1000's of folk in difficutly affording it.

[peza2605]

it isnt just them putting up the costs though. what can we do though? we all need gas and electricity.

[scoobydoo]

I thought the whole thing about privatising the gas & electric companies was to encourage competition...but as soon as one puts its prices up...the other does and they are all within a few pounds of each other anyway over a year! & for ordinary folks to work out who is the cheapest requires a degree with them all using different unit prices and some using standard charges and some not. I tell them to :censored: off if they come to my house... the whole industry needs looking into but the Govt just let them get on with it.;fire

[peza2605]

wish my wages would go up as much as fuel prices have past couple of years.

[Onlyforfun]

The question you have to ask yourself is should an energy supplier pass on the profits it makes in areas other than domestic supply to it's shareholders or it's customers. Bear in mind that the residential customer puts no capital at risk and can move to another supplier if they are not happy.

Imagine a scenario where a domestic supplier is also a producer. In the case of supply, should they not charge their customers somehwere around the going rate on the world markets? Effectively, the price of some natural gas products rose 15% in 2007 and from Dec 06 to now they are up 28% so a 15% increase is not so bad in that context.

To be honest, the media is misreporting the issues as most of the increased profits have come from increased production which a gas company could easily sell on the world markets (and does) rather than directly to domestic customers. So from that point of view the customer is actually getting a good deal as they share in some of the efficiencies of direct delivery that can be made through fixed pipelines rather than shipping the stuff halfway round the world.

Other increases in profits for the big companies come from increasing their customer base. In effect it costs them less per customer to service 1 million customers as it would 500k. Not to mention the scandalous boiler and heating maintenance insurance they offer these days and to my mind if people are daft enough to buy into them they deserve what they get (I would recommend saving the equivalent amount).

As for inflation, the problem is that if you subsidise energy prices (or food etc) then you only make the problem worse by artificially stimulating demand (if it is cheaper there is less incentive to use fuel efficiently and develop alternatives) so the price will rise even further with a corresponding demand on the taxpayer.

And is £571 million such a big amount these days anyway? Consider much of it will go into pension schemes to hedge against the future as better than it going to the govt to waste now.

[tophatter]

Part of capitilism is competing with others to see who can rip off the consumer most effectivley. Fortunatley in order to get in that position they also have to provide a service or some other group ends up getting the cream.

I aint got too much problem with British Gas. We have paid too little for our fuel over the best few decades and have probably been careless with it, taken it for granted.

Private companies have to act in the best interests of their shareholders. As long as they act within the rules then the market should sort it out.

You cant have it both ways. People wanted all the public utilities sold off and where snapping up shares in the 80's. My only gripe was they were sold off too cheaply. When they were nationaly owned the taxpayer was the shareholder, but did the shareholder get a good return? Now they are privatley owned the shareholder are the investors and for that system to work you have to take into account your shareholders.

Thats the system.