All in it together? Energy chiefs feel heat from MPs
Fuel poverty continues to haunt rural England and I am not sure that the performance of this Select Committee has done much to bring its perpetrators to account. It also makes me think about the mechanism which underpins green levies on fuel bills – it seems to be linked to usage rather than ability to pay – a regressive and discriminatory approach particularly for those off grid with higher costs in the first place. This story tells us:
The Big Six energy firms were accused of behaving like a “chorus line acting in concert” as they closed ranks in the Commons to justify rises in gas and electricity prices of around ten per cent.
They blamed the sharp increases on green taxes, transport costs and surging wholesale prices, defended their profits and insisted they sympathised with families struggling to pay bills.
But the consensus was broken when a small company trying to break into the market claimed the Big Six sought to charge customers the “maximum they feel they can get away with”.
Executives from the six firms, which have been accused of acting like a cartel over prices, insisted they behaved responsibly, were committed to transparency over charges and blamed their unpopularity on their failure to get their message across properly.
They denied cross-subsidising their businesses and argued that they were investing billions of pounds in British industry.