{"id":2776,"date":"2015-01-20T17:14:35","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T17:14:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2776"},"modified":"2015-01-21T12:45:16","modified_gmt":"2015-01-21T12:45:16","slug":"price-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2776","title":{"rendered":"What price cuts?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Big Six energy firms \u00e2\u20ac\u201c nPower, British Gas, E.ON, SSE, Scottish Power and EDF \u00e2\u20ac\u201c have held the UK ransom over the years, with steep hikes in gas and electricity bills even as wholesale energy prices have plummeted.<\/p>\n

 
\nToday (January 20), Scottish Power joined British Gas and E.ON in announcing consumer price cuts, amidst criticism that energy companies were refusing to pass on savings to consumers despite a record-breaking 20 per cent drop in wholesale prices over the past year.<\/p>\n

 
\nEven though cuts in gas tariffs made a big splash in the media this week, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re hardly anything to write home about. British Gas announced on Monday (January 19) a 5 per cent cut, E.ON announced a 3.5 per cent drop, and Scottish Power followed suit today (January 20) with a 4.8 per cent cut.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut considering the ballooning profits of the Big Six, who are currently embroiled in a market competition investigation, consumer savings will be negligible \u00e2\u20ac\u201c you can expect to save less than a fiver every month.<\/p>\n

 
\nAnd to add insult to injury, British Gas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and Scottish Power\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s price reductions won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go into effect until the end of next month, when the worst winter weather is largely over.<\/p>\n

 
\nSo much for price cuts.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bToo little, too late\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nLabour leader Ed Miliband, who has previously pledged to freeze energy bills until 2017 and force the Big Six to fairly pass on savings to its customers, called the latest price cuts \u00e2\u20ac\u015btoo little, too late.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/a><\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is not nearly good enough,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWholesale prices have fallen by 20 per cent.”<\/p>\n

 
\nShadow energy and climate secretary Caroline Flint argued that the latest cuts demonstrate why Labour\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s energy policies are needed.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis shows that Ed Miliband was right to challenge the energy companies to cut their prices and pass on the falls in wholesale costs to consumers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Flint said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut given gas prices have fallen by at least 20 per cent a price cut of just 3.5 per cent looks pretty measly and means consumers still aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t getting the full benefit of falling wholesale prices.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nMiliband\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comments follow a motioned tabled by Labour last week<\/a> to fast-track legislation that would give the regulator Ofgem greater powers to force energy companies to fairly pass on savings to consumers when wholesale prices drop.<\/p>\n

 
\nIf savings were passed on to consumers in full since last summer, price comparison website TheEnergyShop.com estimated<\/a> that they should have seen \u00c2\u0141140 savings in annual bills.<\/p>\n

 
\nObscene profits<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nThe Big Six contend that they aim to maintain competitive prices for their customers, with British Gas recently saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur pricing is under constant review and we always aim to keep prices as low as possible for our customers.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nBut Ofgem figures<\/a> from last year reveal a different picture.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe energy regulator found that the Big Six companies have enjoyed \u00c2\u014117bn in combined earnings before interest and tax over the last five years.<\/p>\n

 
\nOfgem also estimated that energy companies\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 profits per customer have soared from \u00c2\u01418 per customer in 2009 to \u00c2\u014148 in 2013.
\nAnd it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t stop there. The regulator notes that the Big Six are on track to earn more than double this figure – \u00c2\u0141102 per customer \u00e2\u20ac\u201c over the next 12 months.<\/p>\n

 
\nThese enormous profit margins even in the face of plummeting wholesale prices prompted Ofgem to refer the energy companies to the Competition and Markets Authority<\/a> last year as part of an 18-month investigation, which could lead to the break-up of the Big Six.<\/p>\n

 
\nHardest hit<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nAs with so many of the costs borne out in a deeply divided society, it is the poorest who are being hardest hit by the rise in energy bills.<\/p>\n

 
\nAccording to an analysis by the House of Commons library released last week<\/a>, the poorest 10 per cent of households saw their electricity bills rise by 40 per cent and their gas bills rise by more than 50 per cent since 2010. On the other hand, the wealthiest ten per cent saw electricity bill increases of only 7.5 per cent and gas bill increases of 24 per cent over the same time period.<\/p>\n

 
\nCommenting on the figures, Flint said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bMillions have been ripped off by the big energy firms who never seem to pass on savings to customers, but these figures show that the poorest households are paying the heaviest price for the Tories\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 failure to stand up to the energy companies and ensure that the full savings from wholesale cost falls are passed on to all consumers.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nAn EU report<\/a> also found that the UK has been slammed by much higher energy bills over the past three years, while the rest of Europe has seen reductions. Of the 28 countries analysed, 13 countries experienced drops in electricity bills, whereas the UK has seen a 10 per cent rise since 2011.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said immediate action was needed to keep energy costs from spiralling out of control.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGreedy energy giants have long put their own interests first before even considering cutting costs to help their beleaguered customers,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Turner. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThese fat cats have lined their pockets for too long. The wholesale costs of gas and electricity have fallen \u00e2\u20ac\u201c pass the savings on to the customers now \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s as simple as that.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBack in the real world however, the reality is that this will never be available from private corporations protecting profits not people. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time to bring our energy back under public ownership.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Big Six energy firms \u00e2\u20ac\u201c nPower, British Gas, E.ON, SSE, Scottish Power and EDF \u00e2\u20ac\u201c have held the UK ransom over the years, with steep hikes in gas and electricity bills even as wholesale energy prices have plummeted.   Today (January 20), Scottish Power joined British Gas and E.ON in announcing consumer price cuts, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[97,204],"wps_subtitle":"Three of Big Six energy firms announce paltry consumer price cuts \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but not until winter is over","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2778,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2776\/revisions\/2778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}