8 September (Part 1) - Cap in hand?
My energy supply contract expired in mid-September 2021 and the best deal I
could find cost 47% more. (When the August 2021 price cap of £1,277 applied.)
A week after I agreed to the new rate my supplier went bust and
by April 2022 the replacement supplier was asking for 224% more than I was paying in the
September. (The April 2022 price cap of £1,971.)
If anyone had said that in a further six months the price would be capped
at £2,500, almost exactly twice the 2021 price, I would not have been at all happy.
£2,500 is widely reported to be the limit that the new Prime Minister has in
mind. Twice what it was 13 months ago and 220% more than it was 14 months ago.
And she thinks I should rejoice on the grounds that it is a lot better than an 80% price cap.
Obviously it is but It is still an increase which will push some people and businesses over the edge.
I have already heard Tory ministers say that the £400 bill rebate proposed by the previous Chancellor still applies and in
effect brings the cap down to £2,100. An attempt at deception worthy of @bexleynews
because the £400 would have applied to the £3,459 cap too. The £400 rebate
is different in the sense that low energy users will benefit proportionately more
than the profligate but it is only for six months so the cap will effectively rise again in April 2023.
Making radical changes is not really practical in three days of premiership.
On a personal note, I had calculated, perhaps rather optimistically, that if I bought a home storage
battery and switched to an Economy 7 style tariff it would pay for itself in
a little over three years. I had assumed that prices would go up by 80% in October and a further 25% in January 2023.
Thanks to Liz Truss it looks like I will have to work it out again.