Forum: Just who should pay the price for rising cost of gas and electric

Sep 30 2009 by Andrew Jackson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

IT’LL soon be time to turn the radiators back on.

I would hope you’ve had them off since the spring, otherwise, like some of our Forum posters below, you’ll be faced with juggling an ever increasing cost.

Otis said: “We have a number of our power companies now under foreign ownership.

“We are always complaining about the way they put the price of fuel up for us. I wonder how our prices for gas and electric compare with the prices they charge back in their own countries?

“Maybe our Government should make sure they are not charging us over the top prices by comparison. After all, the price of power to industry can reduce the competitiveness of all our industries in comparison to those abroad, thus affecting trade and jobs.

“I don’t know if it is possible to rule that a foreign national company has to charge the same price abroad as at home, but it might stop foreign investors buying out crucial British interests and then racking up the profits.

“I think these industries are so important to our future that they should never have been let out of British control.”

TommyDGNR8: “I don’t pretend to understand the market well enough to explain the ins and outs of generation distribution cost contributions. It’s needlessly complicated and the privatisation of the utilities still really annoys me.”

“I wonder how many of the people complaining about the current prices were ‘Sids’ when the nationalised industries were privatised.”

markmyword49 added: “I know that I was and made a tidy profit on the shares I sold as the original companies were the subject of mergers and takeovers by US interests.

“The shares were offered at a significant discount and the new companies ensured their dividend and share price rose year on year by squeezing the assets and reducing their manpower.

“I didn’t hear anyone complaining then about the price of gas and electricity or security of supply.

“Well now we are reaping the results of the loss of long-term thinking as the market dictates the price because we are starting to be a net importer of gas.

“Perhaps now customers will start looking at what they consume.

“Bills may not be reduced but by reducing unnecessary usage the cost may stay the same.”