Rip off Britain
Have you ever felt that you were being conned but not been able to quite put your finger on why you felt that way?
Well that was just how I felt when I received my last energy bills recently. Both the gas and the electricity bills were the largest we had ever received. No doubt we have all watched the news on and off over the last few years talking about rising energy costs, how scarce gas is becoming, how our suppliers are having to increase bills due to the spiralling wholesale prices etc etc.
Like me you may well have fallen for the sob stories and not looked into it any further? Taken for granted that we are being told the truth? With my bills hitting all time highs I just knew I was being ripped off and decided to look a bit harder. If you read any further you had better be prepared for one heck of a shock!
Here are the annual statistics on retail gas prices from the “Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform”, showing the dramatic rise in prices we have all witnessed in particular over the last 3 or 4 years. This chart doesn’t even show the record breaking monster bills we have all been paying in 2009.
Wow with those sorts of price rises there surely must have been terrible rises in the wholesale gas price over the last few years. Those poor energy companies must have really been getting their margins squeezed, trying to absorb as much of the price rise as possible so as not to pass it all onto us angry consumers. I almost felt sorry for them struggling to operate in an environment with such runaway prices.
What a sucker!!! Those feelings instantly gave way to pure anger when I looked at the wholesale gas prices over the last few years. Imagine my surprise when I realised that gas prices:
- Are at their lowest level for 7 years
- Have fallen in the last year from 14 to just 3.5 (don’t ask me what the units are, but that’s a 75% fall whatever you measure it in!)
- Were at their highest in 2005 and rapidly fell from there
The true cost of gas has been going down just about as fast as our bills have been going up! We have been right royally shafted, swallowing all that hype hook line and sinker! Thanks for nothing Britain. Caveat Emptor!
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Copyright © Simon Townshend 2009, all rights reserved.
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