This Government

😂😂😂

So what are people's thoughts on the easing of energy bills from October?

To me it's just a waste of money. £60 off my monthly bill is substantial, sure, but you then allow energy companies to charge even more, so in reality it's going to be much less than that and you're effectively handing energy companies free cash from our taxes.

Why not set a tighter cap and use the money saved from not subsidising my bills?

I spent a decade working in retail energy and the profit margins for suppliers used to be very slim on a percentage basis. There was a lot of loss leadership going on with new fixed tariffs to the extent the competing players wouldn’t have been making anything on it which is partly why so many hit the wall alongside poor hedging strategies and issues with collection of debts. However, 2% on £1,500 is obviously a lot less than 2% on £3,500. The generators like Shell and BP however are a different kettle of fish altogether.

Headline figures are bullshit and completely meaningless. The only worth is providing a guide as to the general direction in costs. A much better way than giving a blanket £60 is to ensure like you say that the unit rates are controlled. However, that’s not necessarily compatible with goals to get consumers to reduce their energy consumption. Whilst it’s painful the high cost of energy is causing many to rethink how they can ensure they use less energy by wasting less, investing in energy saving measures, or even perhaps green micro generation. The problem is those that can afford to do something about it are those who can shoulder the increases somewhat. It’s a very challenging problem to solve in an equitable way without ending up subsidising wasteful or inefficient use of energy.

In my terrace of 4 alone one house has finally had its cavity wall insulation done, another a heat pump installed, and the other new double glazing all within the last 2 months. (I’m the odd one out albeit rather efficient already having renovated throughout in recent years) Would that investment be happening if energy prices weren’t the way they are? 

I don't think your wording of "The Tory Gov closed our gas storage facilities" is accurate. The Rough storage facility was owned by Centrica not the government, so the government didn't close it down. Yes they declined to subsidise the repairs and running costs but was it really their responsibility to do so. After all, as seen this week, don't you think Centrica should have funded these repairs from the billions of pounds profit they make each year.

The Government should have made them do the repairs.

They would have undertaken Risk and Scenario planning V Cost Benefit of the work involved,if they did doubt anyone would have come up with the current combination of

Pandemic
Surge in global demand as economies restart
War in Europe

If they did would have been viewed as very very low risk.

A bit like when they looked at pandemic planning and thought 'PPE? No need.'

The important thing is that they review this and other such national resilience measures, including energy dependency. I see they've given the go ahead for another development at Sizewell which is a start.

We’ve got 2 days storage capacity I think so we’re in a really bad situation having to buy when prices peak and demand is high…. We have to buy otherwise we’re all cold !
It’s rank poor planning.

This bloody mob in charge 😂!