vivweb01blog

Update 21.1.26: The recent announcement of Miliband's long-awaitied Warm Homes Plan sadly does little to inspire confidence that government is on the right track.... Although the fine detail isn't yet clear, it's obvious from the announcement that this will be yet another scheme to 'Rob Peter to pay Paul'...as you might expect from a socialist government obsessed with making economies to try to cover its policy errors.  It's obvious that heat pumps are an expensive item which commit the owner to much higher electricity bills, and are not affordable for the majority even with a sizeable grant. Any grants for solar panels, which are a much better bet cost of living-wise, and will ease the pressure on the supply industry, will still only go to the poorest households. Thus the majority of us will be faced with yet another inflation-busting increase in our bills (no doubt via the standing charges) to pay for the benefit of the few.  Another consequence is that a surg...

A Warning to low Electricity and Gas users:   If you are anything other than a high user of both fuels, don't be tempted by offers from your supplier to fix your tariffs now.... Suppliers are now piling on the pressure to fix with a plethora of different and highly confusing offers, none of which include a reduction in the standing charge . These offers have been coming in thick and fast since last month following the latest price cap rise, and the unexpected rise in the cap from January, and OFGEM are effectively 'co-conspiring' with suppliers to try to get you to fix now, by soft-pedalling on a final decision on the precise details of any SC reductions. There is also a nasty rumour that OFGEM has caved in even further to the cartel and is likely to set a minimum consumption level (ca 666 kWh for electricity and 2500kWh for Gas) for a 'low' user to qualify for a reduced-SC tariff. This is ridculously high and would exclude many pensioners who have already cut their...

  Rachel Reeves has a thorny problem on her hands.  She needs to decide within the next 3 weeks (i.e. before the budget on Nov 26 th ) whether to break the key manifesto promise Labour made in order to get themselves elected in 2024, i.e. not to raise Income Tax, VAT or National Insurance. She knows that breaking this promise will be a highly unpopular move, not least with her back-bench colleagues, and doing so, however justifiably in her eyes, could spell electoral suicide for the party. If the opinion polls are anything to go by, the process of Labour's decline started as soon as she announced the near abolition of  WFP last July; it could really start to snowball in May of next year, in the aftermath of the predicted whitewash of Labour seats in the next round of local elections. The chancellor is also facing the increasingly gloomy financial outlook for the UK prophesied by the OBR, and is desperate to give herself as much financial ‘headroom’ as possible wit...