Two years ago, I was paying 10p per KWh for my electric. The standing charge was minmal. In October of this year (2022), I’m expecting to pay 40p per KWh and, probably, £15 per month standing charge. Electricity has now become unaffordable for millions of UK citizens. Meanwhile, the UK Government has done NOTHING to reduce the unit price of electricity for any consumer, domestic or business. In fact, many thousands of UK businesses are now on the brink of bankruptcy due to massive hikes in the price they are being asked to pay. There is no price cap for UK businesses, VAT is 20% and standing charges are already 50p per day and more.
This is the crisis in UK. Forget two days of high temperatures (our “heatwave” lasted just two days), no, the cisis is that millions cannot afford to pay their electricity bills, and that will surely collapse the UK economy. Already, millions of UK workers have indicated that they’ll be taking strike action in the Autumn. Inflation is now 11.8% as measured by the Retail Prices Index and the Government is trying to restrict public sector pay rises to between 2 – 5%. It’s not going to work. Strike action will cripple the country this winter and may even bring down the Government. Things are not looking good.
The main driver for inflation is world energy prices, and the Government appear to believe that telling people it isn’t their fault will solve the problems. It won’t. Action is required and it’s required now. The Government have done NOTHING to bring down the price of electric. I repeat, NOTHING. They could reduce the price of electric by 30%, if they were willing to remove “green levies” and VAT (Green levies account for 25% of electric bills, while VAT is 5%). A 30% cut in electric bills would be deflationary, and would help millions of the poorest UK citizens. The fact is though, that the Government don’t care. They actually believe that people can afford to pay 40p and even 50p per KWh which is not surprising considering the average MP runs up £175,000 on their expenses (that, in addition to their £87,000 salary).
How do we know that the Government is completely out of touch with the havoc being created by the cost of living crisis? Well, UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak, recently borrowed £10 billion to bailout the energy companies this winter. He knows that millions will not be able to pay their bills, so he’s covering any losses the energy companies may make. Yet he admits that he doesn’t even know if energy companies are making profits or not this summer and he may have to have a “windfall” tax on them when their accounts are finally published. Another example of how clueless this former Chancellor and leadership candidate really is.
So, the “crisis” is not a two day “heatwave”, it is the unit price of electricity which is projected to be 50p per KWh in April 2023. One of two things can happen here, either the Government gets the unit price of electric in UK to fall significantly, or, the UK Government falls. Having watched how these geniuses have performed over the last couple of years, I’m fully expecting the latter. This winter of discontent will destroy the Government if they do not act quickly and considering they should have acted six months ago, I’ll not be holding my breath.