Non - Cost of Living

Ministers must offer bigger cost-of-living support payments as energy bills are expected to soar further this winter, a committee of MPs has said.

Financial help for the vulnerable and poor needed to be "updated" to reflect higher bills in October, they said.

Witnesses told the Business Committee: "If you think things are bad now, you've not seen anything yet."

Its report also called energy regulator Ofgem "incompetent". Ofgem said it was working hard to reform the market.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62291652
 
billythekid said:
Ministers must offer bigger cost-of-living support payments as energy bills are expected to soar further this winter, a committee of MPs has said.

Financial help for the vulnerable and poor needed to be "updated" to reflect higher bills in October, they said.

Witnesses told the Business Committee: "If you think things are bad now, you've not seen anything yet."

Its report also called energy regulator Ofgem "incompetent". Ofgem said it was working hard to reform the market.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62291652
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Sod all that helping the poor and vulnerable. Have you any idea how much it costs to send planes to Rwanda? And we have tax cuts to fund.
 
northstandmark said:
What if tax cuts could help the poor and vulnerable, instead of taxing them and then giving them the money back in welfare (after first parsing it through a byzantine bureaucracy) :slap:
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I think it makes far more sense to take £500 in tax, lose £200 in bureaucracy and then give the remaining £300 to an energy company in the form of a loan on behalf of the taxpayer.
 
Kudos said:
I think it makes far more sense to take £500 in tax, lose £200 in bureaucracy and then give the remaining £300 to an energy company in the form of a loan on behalf of the taxpayer.
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The £200 is needed to award lucrative contracts to preferred suppliers who can then give generous donations to deserving pms and political parties.
 
RobTrent said:
Centrica and Shell reporting obscene profits while we’re being told working people can’t have a pay rise. Tories eh?
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Easy to sympathise with your point.

We've seen small energy companies that tried to run more nimble disruptive operations go bust, whilst behemoths get bigger. That is a shame. It's a trend across the world in recent years that I do not like.

These companies would say that they're busy driving investment and development into both existing energy sources and also into future renewable sources to meet the UK and wider world's needs and targets etc etc. Challenging landscape in which multiple energy companies have gone bust lately blah blah.

https://news.sky.com/story/why-we-should-want-shell-and-centrica-to-keep-making-money-12660627

Which yes is slick PR, but it is also true. We do ask and expect these companies to take risks and punt investments that the public sector isn't able. And to do that, they need profits to reinvest.

So the question is what do they do with the profits announced today, how to incentivise more of what we want (reinvestment) and less of what we don't want (excessive bonuses and dividends to execs and shareholders). Perhaps through tax carrots and sticks, perhaps through regulation (and there's topical questions over Ofgem currently).

Also worth considering if you have a pension, it's almost certainly invested in Centrica and Shell. Many of us on this messageboard are likely to be tiny shareholders of sorts in these companies.
 
northstandmark said:
We've seen small energy companies that tried to run more nimble disruptive operations go bust, whilst behemoths get bigger. That is a shame. It's a trend across the world in recent years that I do not like.

These companies would say that they're busy driving investment and development into both existing energy sources and also into future renewable sources to meet the UK and wider world's needs and targets etc etc. Challenging landscape in which multiple energy companies have gone bust lately blah blah.

https://news.sky.com/story/why-we-should-want-shell-and-centrica-to-keep-making-money-12660627

Which yes is slick PR, but it is also true. We do ask and expect these companies to take risks and punt investments that the public sector isn't able. And to do that, they need profits to reinvest.

So the question is what do they do with the profits announced today, how to incentivise more of what we want (reinvestment) and less of what we don't want (excessive bonuses and dividends to execs and shareholders). Perhaps through tax carrots and sticks, perhaps through regulation (and there's topical questions over Ofgem currently).

Also - if you have a pension, it's almost certainly invested in Centrica and Shell. Many of us on this messageboard are tiny shareholders in these companies.
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You are Rishi Sunak and I claim my £5 eat out to help out voucher.
 
northstandmark said:
Easy to sympathise with your point.

We've seen small energy companies that tried to run more nimble disruptive operations go bust, whilst behemoths get bigger. That is a shame. It's a trend across the world in recent years that I do not like.

These companies would say that they're busy driving investment and development into both existing energy sources and also into future renewable sources to meet the UK and wider world's needs and targets etc etc. Challenging landscape in which multiple energy companies have gone bust lately blah blah.

https://news.sky.com/story/why-we-should-want-shell-and-centrica-to-keep-making-money-12660627

Which yes is slick PR, but it is also true. We do ask and expect these companies to take risks and punt investments that the public sector isn't able. And to do that, they need profits to reinvest.

So the question is what do they do with the profits announced today, how to incentivise more of what we want (reinvestment) and less of what we don't want (excessive bonuses and dividends to execs and shareholders). Perhaps through tax carrots and sticks, perhaps through regulation (and there's topical questions over Ofgem currently).

Also worth considering if you have a pension, it's almost certainly invested in Centrica and Shell. Many of us on this messageboard are likely to be tiny shareholders of sorts in these companies.
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Firstly, much of the profits go to Shareholders and greedy CEOs.

And lets discuss 'reinvestment', which companies like this have been using as an excuse for years.

Railway: Slower more unreliable services, less staff to assist people. Same trains running for decades. I don't think train drivers are responsible for this.

Water: Been pumping sewage into our rivers and seas without any fear of punishment for ages. Wheres the evidence of investment?

Energy: Spend large amounts of money lobbying against any measures to minimise the impact of climate change. Make obscene profits yet call for Government to 'do something'.

Yes, the Government should renationalise the lot.
 
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