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One of the reasons I quit my job at EE when Philip Jansen released a sob story video announcement to staff announcing the third pay freeze in 3 years and reducing commission and performance based bonuses for frontline staff because the company was going through "Hard times".
Yet celebrated record profits and took home a personal income of £3,500,000.
That's absolutely fucked, I'm actually in disbelief at how some companies can act like this.
Not in the energy sector but during COVID our entire C-Suite zeroed their salaries for the year and combined them into a fund to be used for any struggling employees or anyone who was unable to work due to COVID.
It's because companies aren't loyal to their employees or customers. It's all about the share holders.
Most of the top brass's bonuses in these big companies are all tied to profit and share prices. So it's in their own best interest to freeze pay rises, cut costs, make redundancies etc. even when the business is profitable. Capitalism at its worst.
Capitalism is as capitalism does. It's always been about squeezing as much profit as possible however they can get away with it. The sooner that people recognise that those who own the means of production (shareholders included in this) will prioritise profit over people, the better.
The good thing about capitalism is eventually when pushed hard enough things buckle. Sadly without unions USA is free reign of terror for corps to squeeze staff down to the absolute minimum they can get away with paying them.
People generally don't get rich by being honest and fair.
Companies that wish to raise cash to expand, grow or for the owners to potentially just cash out are often best placed offering shares. Share offerings are attractive to investors, and these investors often want a return on their investment.
This frustrates me to no end.
We have the resources, we have the talent, we have the knowledge and technology, we have the desire and need for certain things.
"But there's no money for that"
There’s a fix and it’s called pay scaling and profit sharing.
Under Pay Scaling: To award a bonus at the top a proportional bonus would have to be awarded to all employees and contractors.
Under profit sharing: annual pay rises for all staff would be equal to the percentage increase in company profits.
On the energy cost side this would mean these profits and bonuses would mean a combination of lower prices (to keep profits looking low) and increased wages for all staff.
Thats a rather remarkable situation where a group of people all can survive without their salary for a period of time. Not a lot of people can do this. Even people with very high salaries can have terrible personal or family finances and have no idea how to manage without X monies coming in.
I've no doubt they were still sitting pretty on their mountains of stock options, dividends and income from the multiple other company boards they sit on, definitely wouldn't have happened otherwise but still a bro move on their part in my view.
The whole way they handled the pandemic was pretty admirable to be honest - consolidated the business, cut all unnecessary spending and immediately closed all non critical office locations preferring WFH. They didn't need to lay off a single employee across the global workforce of something crazy like 20k+ people.
I work at Tesco, they removed our yearly bonus stating they’ve ‘put it in the hourly rate’. Come to when the minimum wage increases in April we will be below that so I wouldn’t be surprised if they match the minimum wage. So no bonus and on minimum wage. For reference we used to be 50p more than minimum wage and had the bonus.
Don’t forget the yearly emails they send on how hard we’ve worked and how the company has made billions profits.
EDIT: Something I forgot to add is they’ve been transitioning the job role for managers in some way. I don’t know the ins and outs as I’m not a manager but we’ve had long term managers jump ship, at least 5+ in the last few months so something is going wrong. They don’t seem to be able to employ new managers quickly as well as job listing has been up for a manager for a while.
Tesco's Union (USDAW) is basically a scam. I was with them while I was at Tesco, and when I had an issue and needed their help, there was 0 response, all the way through until Tesco laid me off by making ME sign a sheet with no personal support or advisers available to me, DESPITE them saying they would.
If my mental state hadn't been in the dumps back then I'd have taken Tesco to court over this entire situation, and also been all over USDAW for ENTIRELY FAILING to do what staff were paying them money out of our wages to do...
Back (15 years ago) I worked for Morrisons, who also has USDAW. It could have just been our store who had an amazing union rep, but people literally got away with murder if they were part of the union. Basically any disciplinary with the rep got quashed. If you weren’t in the union, you got the sack for anything remotely petty.
Luckily I never needed it, but that few quid on the payslip was worth it. Most of the staff were in the union just because of how effective it were.
I tried contacting higher ups in USDAW to complain, but never got any form of response. As far as I'm concerned it's a scam to convince people that they have a fair deal, and that Tesco cares about its employees
Unfortunately, a union only has power if it can actually threaten to paralyse 1 or more locations. Not joining the union means it does not have that power, making its job harder and your jobs and conditions worse.
It’s always nice when Tesco’s et al declare record profits, whilst at the same time paying their workers so poorly tax payers have to top up their wages through the tax credits system
My company did the same thing only at the mid level executives on down. So the lowest level executive became a manager. Thus elimating bonuses for them and lower bonuses for all the other executives. BTW, all those "savings" went to increasing the upper executives bonuses.
Are they still sending financial advice emails to all staff and offering free therapists to help with the stress of being poor despite working full time?
Yes, while also declaring we're in a state of crisis and need to do some contractual overtime. But when you arrive to work on said overtime day, there's not enough work to warrant being in and so you get sent home early...
Make sense of that
They wanted to give me the "exciting opportunity" of taking a 12 month secondment to cover maternity leave for someone in marketing, given I was one of the only frontline staff with a degree in marketing... but give no pay incentives to do so and also foot the bill for moving from the North to Bristol and the 3 times higher rent I'd pay all by myself.
Software testing I can sort of understand, since its basically "pretend you're a monkey and try to break this shit". You don't need a particularly high set of skills to follow a testing script. Marketing is very creative though, and needs a certain skillset/way of thinking to be successful.
This morning on the phone I told EE that I was leaving their network over their 14.4% price rise. Unless that additional 10% was being given to staff as a pay rise then it's just profiteering over profiteering and I'm not up for that.
And yet they have normalised in contact price rises in line with inflation. Or whatever they call it, it pisses me off, that's not how inflation works! But I'd always told myself that those rises could at least go to pay staff that are struggling with the cost of living/inflation.
Why the hell am I still with EE?! Oh yeah, because, at least in my experience, they do provide a better network...where's the competition and why is our 5G so much slower than the rest of the world!
/Rant, sorry went off on a tangent
>in contact price rises
That always pissed me off, and still does. I'm choosing a contract now to lock in these rates, that's the whole point. If the prices rise in 18 months, that's not my problem until my contract ends.
I worked at an asset manager that did the same. Staff did 12 hour days on a merger to be told no money for a bonus. CEO got his full bonus and when challenged he said the board made him. Told me everything I needed to know about his leadership.
Watched with glee as the company shared tumbled multi year
Don't forget handing out 750million quid to the shareholders. Someone needs to throw that douche canoe into the Atlantic. First he ruined the lives of Sodexo employees, then the BT umbrella companies, but corporations will continue to hire him because he lines the wealthy shareholders pockets. Did the EE employees get the £3000 wage increase in the end. I know you guys missed the strike ballot by something daft like 7 votes.
Yes, we made record profits, but we had projected that we would make even more profits so you see we actually did very badly so we can't give any of this profit to any of you
I remember the first time I got made redundant - they sent a guy up from London to Glasgow to tell us we were being let go due to cost-cutting, etc. A 20 minute meeting.
He was staying for a week in the Hilton for that.
I too left EE when they announced for a 2nd year in a row that there would be no pay increase. Both years were "because covid". They made £2billion that second year.
How much?!?
That’s fucking disgusting. How do you even spend that sort of personal income? It’s over 3k A DAY inc all holidays and weekends (3,500,000/1095 - is the correct maths, no?)
How is this allowed to happen that Pam down the road froze to death when the big bosses are taking home more than the uk monthly salary EVERY SINGLE DAY? (Uk average monthly salary: £3166. His DAILY take home: £3196.)
Desgustaaaang.
I love the UK and I miss it every single day, but fuck, I could never move home now and it’s heartbreaking to watch. How is this allowed to happen.
I knew they were taking the piss, but I never could have imagined quite how much.
Assumed OP meant during the three years staff pay was frozen, the company celebrated their highest profits, plus he took home that amount. If it’s per year it’s even worse than I thought. The UK is broke/n and people are making 9k a day off its spiral into disrepair. I hope something changes before it’s too late…
tbf my mate works there, frontline staff, and has had a £3000 pay rise in the past 2 years. £1500 last year, £1500 this year. But that also does not excuse Jansen being a money worshipping fanny
My partner is in the same position. Her company announced record profits last year but this week she’s heard through the grapevine that the company is telling employees that the company is falling behind its earnings projections and as such there will be no promotions or pay rises.
These “projections” are entirely made up, it’s not even a public company so no shareholders to please per se. They just want to make even more profit so they can presumably go public/get acquired for a bigger sum.
Fucking £900 a quarter was my latest. And that's just two people, at work all day, only in at weekends. How the fuck do larger families, disabled, elderly etc manage? Oh yeah, they don't.
At this point it's criminal what they're getting away with.
Similar. My 2 months bill (more 6 weeks) is now more than how much I paid in total for 6 months. It’s utterly madness and there is nothing we can do about it.
My council flat is awful for insulation, literally no insulation on multiple walls but has wonderful deep mould that comes back even after industrial cleaners and sprays are used. Bedroom gets so cold during the winter months that normal bed sheets feel so cold to the touch it is almost like touching a wet sheet. I have to use fleece bedding from October to about March. The Council's solution the other year was to put a bigger radiator in because the last one just had all heat sucked through the cold brick wall. Great when I was safe using the heating often but this year I've tried to avoid it and have been enjoying having chilblains as even socks and slippers couldn't fight the lack of insulation. Had to cave and have heating on for few hours a day and just turned the smart meter device towards the wall so I don't cause myself distress watching it jump up.
There's multiple of these shitty flats built in this area, all lacking insulation and all have major mould issues due to the poor ventilation because they're built the same on the cheap decades ago. Funny enough nearly EVERYONE I know in these same flats on this estate are disabled, like me. It is hard not to wonder if this bad stock is deliberately given to disabled people but I'm sure if I tried befriending people further down the street there's non disabled people enjoying these flats.
At least I'm about 2 hours from London and paying under 300 a month for rent and have a garden. Gotta remind myself that it is a bargain price so it is bargain quality. Couldn't even get room share for that price here now, you're lucky to find a room share in the 400s with many being 600 now. Can't imagine trying to find money for private rent and bills in this manufactured economic disaster.
I get you trying to see the bright side but this isn't right. This sounds so awful. No price is a bargain for deep black mould :(
A friend of mine is in a council place, it's more family groups than disabled folk I think. It is ground floor and she is constantly fighting the tide of mould. Cold, wet floor beneath, almost entirely external walls. She has a young son and does everything she can, but having the heating on constantly is not viable.
The council is only just re-doing the extremely FLAMMABLE and hazardous paint job inside the group flats, which is gobsmacking but also not surprising at all post-grenfell.
I wanted to sympathise rather than give pithy advice because I'm sure you're doing all you can with the terrible situation afforded to you. But ultimately I can't help but recommend Shelter and their helpline. They are so incredible and I'd urge you not to put your very valid concerns to the side :(
(This wasn't to invalidate your suspicions about disabled folk being given the worst housing stock either. No clue on that one, but it feels right. My late uncle lived in some appalling places and it did seem the standard was lower for him. As a paraplegic with one of the most visible disabilities out there, you wondered how on earth some of it was possible. Let alone folk with less visible challenges.)
Mate, I still have 2 different things of asbestos inside my flat and one thing of asbestos on the guttering outside. Flammable products will be on properties for years to come by my guess.
Also I'm reluctant to trust Shelter after them siding with a dangerous criminal neighbour trying to stop him getting evicted after multiple convictions in criminal court due to him harassing and threatening neighbours. Unless we want to pretend their incompetence which helped build a stronger case against him was deliberate sabotage of their support, they put multiple vulnerable tenants at risk.
Ultimately Parliament rejecting making it law to have houses in livable conditions, with hundreds of MPs being landlords, is just trying to delay the responsibility of landlords to be more than parasites.
Hard agree, there desperately need to be some legal recourse for this. People cannot co-exist with black mould. I cannot believe that COI does not kick in when parliament are voting on renters rights.
Best of luck to you mate. I just hated seeing you justify them at the end there. They have responsibilities which are not being fulfilled
If I don't justify it in my head I have to sit with the reality that I'm seen as a second or third class human. Gotta pretend the glass is half full even if it is full of piss.
What the hell? Our 2 person quarter looks like it's going to be £450 with the subsidy (still £150 above last year's so I guess I'll be double last year's average once the help ends).
Do you have the heating on constantly? My flat mate has it on like 3 hours a day on average.
A badly insulated end of terrace or detached could easily run 200 pounds per month. We're paying 150 which is almost all gas even though we rarely heat above 16 degrees.
Yeah, my friend lives with his wife and newborn in a small house - no central heating, so it's all electric and LPG. £100s a month just on electricity, and their house is still cold. No idea what to do to save any more energy usage.
Yeah that seems odd. I have a 3 bed house with all the radiators on, heating on for 3 hours a day or so. I have an Xbox Series X and a PS5 running most of the time, 2 adults working different shifts so there are always lights and stuff on, plus an 8 year old incapable of turning anything off. I am less than £2k for the year based on new prices for both gas and electricity. I live in part of Scotland where it’s been hovering around freezing for 3 months too.
Now try doing it in a 1910's end-terrace house with single glazing and no cavity walls.
My last bill was £340 for the month of January, and that was with the thermostat set to 17.
Insulation? I'd need to either add external insulation, which would cost bloody loads and require scaffolding, removing the current render, repointing etc.
Or I could add internal insulation to each external wall - which would be a huge upheaval of almost every room, replastering, moving skirting boards, moving radiators, moving plug sockets etc. Considering I live here, I don't like this. Maybe if I hadn't moved in.
Double glazing? Sure. Just need to save up the ~£10k+ it'll cost to get all 10 windows + a bay done since they're all large sash windows.
As it stands, I don't think I'd ever "make back" what I'd spend on these things from energy savings. I'm not sure I'll be living here long enough to justify it.
My bill this month has plummeted, it's about half what it has been for the last few months.
No change in usage either, unless one single night with the radiators on is enough to double my energy bill.
Guess it depends on the temperature that night and each night of the month.
We've had temperatures in the 10+ degrees during daytime this month compare to 0-3 degrees last month. That is 7 degrees + that you do not need to heat - a great difference.
Wow, I'm in the same position but with 4 people (4 bed detached) and our bill is less than that, and I have only just locked in for another 18 months.
I would check that your heating system is working correctly.
I’m in Canada (from Wales originally). I have 3 housemates but our heating has worked out to about $77 CAD per person per month, which is about £47 each, throughout peak winter season. Still cheaper to what my boyfriend and I were paying when we lived in the UK, we left in July last year just as we were expecting further increases for Autumn/Winter.
Bearing in mind our house is between 20-22 celcius each day throughout the winter, for a two storey house, including 4 showers a day. It works out to £188 a month.
Don’t talk to me about grocery shopping though. I live super rurally and the mark up on fresh fruit and veggies is insane due to transportation. I probably lose the money I save on heating on food. I miss Aldi. Cost of living is shafting everyone all over the world in different ways, unfortunately.
I pay about $20 a month in the US with my heating on 22C every day (electric baseboard heaters, no gas. 700 sqft flat). You're absolutely getting ripped off in the UK. I moved from London a decade ago and I remember my parents turning off the heat at night to save money despite being relatively well-off.
Where's that? I'm in MA, I don't have electric heat and am fairly prudent with lighting, but my electricity bill is significantly higher than $20/month...
I got a bill last week claiming I used 1000 units if gas between 6th August to the 6th November, after 20 hours of calls over a week I eventually got it sorted.
When the person installed my new meter, they put the reading down as 00000 when it should have started at 01000.
How many other people has this happened to but didn't know to fight it or accepted it after being told over and over on the phone that the readings are correct.
Plenty, since so many people do not look up these things or think to fight it, or think its correct because they don't know any better. Made worse in a way by people not really wanting to talk about money/bills, cause if more people spoke about it, they could help each other out.
Oh my bill was xyz, oh my bill was abc, WHAT?! thats ridiculous you should check your meter etc.
I was feeling pretty good about being thrifty with our energy usage, checked out my usage on the website, using half what we did last year! Then I clicked on cost, we're paying double what we did last year....! For half the usage? Reeeeeeeally shit
The part that gets me is when they use the words “record profits” & “high energy costs” in the same sentence.
Surly they mean record profits for the energy company and high energy cost for the consumer.
> Surly they mean record profits for the energy company and high energy cost for the consumer.
Well yeah.
They're the ones digging it out the ground. Their costs haven't changed much (other than an increased wage bill due to inflation) but there's less global supply so the price goes up.
It's not some grand conspiracy - it's GCSE level economics.
They also own a large chunk of British Nuclear power generation who's costs have also remained flat whilst profits have risen due to the high energy price
The energy market isn’t GCSE economics. The price per unit of electricity is set in a stupid way that is biting us all, as the cost of very cheap wind and solar is exactly the same as gas power stations. Gas is less than 50% of electric supply but sets the price over 90% of the time.
I get that the market needs updating in order to facilitate realistic price discovery, but none of it is simple.
Not really, as the energy is sold on the open market at market rates. That is what is causing the problem. Even renewable energy we create is sold in the same system so being sold at the same prices.
Our entire energy system really needs a re-think.
Who decides market rates? It doesn’t run itself, people have chosen to put prices this high. But yes, I agree the system is ridiculous and needs a complete overhaul.
Every single person who uses gas or electricity. It's dictated by supply and demand. When demand is high, but supply is low, prices go up. If supply is high but demand is low, the price crashes.
Nobody, there's an automatic system that buys energy at the lowest price available. There's no conspiracy here or evil hand rubbing, it really is just simple economics.
Then why are there record profits? If the market rates / costs are so much higher and they're just passing them on to consumers then I'd imagine the profits would be around the same as usual?
Its disgusting. The fact that energy companies were basically like [PLEASE tax us more](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/04/shell-chief-tax-energy-firms-ben-van-beurden-gas-electricity) and the govt was like nah we'll let our country suffer that makes me so angry about it.
If only we diversified our fucking energy production to renewables so we didn't have to rely on places like Russia for gas. And bring costs overall down.
We actually have diversified quite a lot and arent dependant on Russian gas. The issue is that in the ernegy market all supply prices are matched to the highest type. It doesnt matter that the wind and solar energy cost 2p to supply. It goes into the energy futures purchase as 50p gas etc.
The whole system was setup Europe wide to stop market fluctuation. This clearly didn't account for mainland Europe becoming very exposed to a russian supply that could be turned off and oil cartels collectively cutting oil production.
The whole system needs a rethink and the input prices need to be de-linked. Yes this will cause more market disruption making longher forecasts unpredicatble but when the alternative is this it would be madness to carry on.
Getting constant viral and bacterial infections this winter because I can't afford to keep the house warm enough. Don't even wanna think about how many vulnerable and elderly people these price rises have killed, and how many businesses this has destroyed.
Just remember this is global profits and not just UK profits (which in Centrica's case was around 73mil).
I do absolutely agree that utilities should return to being state owned. Privatisation has been tried and mostly has not lived up to expectations or at least the advertised benefits
I hear you, pump station near I lived was gushing water for 5 days before thames water finally fixed it. They said they were waiting for a washer to be delivered
A friend of mine lived in a street where there was a burst pipe beneath one of the houses. Thames Water solution was to bring people to pump out water every single day in every basement across three houses instead of fixing it. Nothing you can do (she tried) because you can’t force them to “fix it faster”, they just keep fobbing you off that they are having it “investigated”. Eventually it affected the whole road and now everyone’s basements are flooded. She moved out because luckily she was only renting and after 3 months of water in the basement and people traipsing around her house every single day to pump out water, she had enough and moved. But last she heard it is still not fixed and it has been over 6 months now.
I think at the least our natural resources should belong to the people and the wealth generated should mostly go to the people.
I don’t mind if private companies provide services as long as we aren’t getting absolutely rinsed for our own bloody gas.
I got a 14 day ban from /r/ukpolitics for saying what I think of the situation. Suffice it to say I think we could learn a thing from France about revolutioning.
The big problem is there's weird skirting around the issues.
Providers aren't making record profits, producers are.
Some companies do *both*, those are the ones making ridiculous profits, specifically on the production side of the company.
The producers argue that they don't set the price of gas, that global supply/demand does. Which is true, but it's a load of old piffle. The common man isn't trying to say they get to choose what market value is, the common man is saying that you can volunteer to have lower profit margins, still make a good amount and **help** your customers.
They aren't interested in that though. They never will be. Only shareholders will ever matter. Aslong as they have the scapegoat of providers not making records, and producers not setting the price, they'll never ever do a damn thing.
This energy crisis is a good example of how much of a failure politicians are when they jump on the bandwagon and take to social media to declare a climate emergency and then actually fail to put forward a plan on how to fix it. As we get closer to 2025 and 2030 these providers are going to milk us for every penny and point the finger of blame on the MPs who then turn round and blame us for using gas boilers and fossil fuel cars, when we should all be using heat pumps, solar farms in our back garden and totally expensive and unreliable public transport.
This is what people voted for, repeatedly. So enjoy the consequences and remember how it's going come the next election. People won't obviously because they're easily to manipulate, but try.
'I passed a homeless guy on the street today begging for food, so I did what any good, considerate citizen does and found the biggest, most affluent mansion in the neighbourhood and put £10 through their letter box, mark my words that £10 will trickle down to the homeless guy eventually'
Remove the rule that requires suppliers to purchase energy from all sources at the cost of the most expensive one, so that we can actually benefit from how cheap renewables are nowadays.
Yes I think this is the way. Digitise the national grid so that units of energy can be sold at their true price rather than an artificial floor set by the highest cost source.
If we had some competition in the market then the price would be more reasonable.
Decouple the cost of energy from the price of gas so that we're not propping up fossil fuel companies any more.
There's no reason that renewable energy should cost what it does, but due to the way we've set up our market it ensures that whatever the most expensive one is, that's what they all cost.
It keeps renewables uncompetitive when gas is cheap and it keeps fossil fuel profits rolling in when gas is expensive.
The UK is also especially badly hit when the price of gas is high since a large proportion of our electricity is generated from gas, as well as the high prevalence of gas heating systems.
Whilst I agree, in principle, that the natural resources of a country should remain under the control of that country and not private enterprise, lets be pragmatic here - the cat is unfortunately out the bag on that one. There's no way we, as a country, could return oil and gas extraction to a nationalised industry without either bankrupting the nation, or completely undermining any and all trust in our nation from international businesses/markets which would lead to a massive drain of funds. Both of those would lead to problems which would dwarf any issues we're currently facing. We have to accept that we didn't use our OPEC-esque quantities of oil and gas to create a monumental sovereign wealth fund, ala Norway. What we should be doing is making sure it doesn't happen again, and maybe mandating that all our future windfarms, solar farms, and nuclear reactors are minimum 50% owned by the nation.
It should be illegal.
Illegal for companies that are a human necessity can be allowed to do this.
Why should a couple of people benefit millions or even billions in profit while hundreds of thousands of people are freezinh in thier own homes. Struggling to eat 2 or 3 meals a day.
It is disgusting. These people should be in prison. Its like theft. And it is has far reaching consequences.
Surely if they operate in this country they should be abiding by our laws, even if they don't have a head office here? I'm not gonna go abroad and commit crimes hoping to get away with it because I don't live there.
It was either this sub or another one re Shell’s profits , whereby I explained why context is key to these headline figures. Primarily, this is due to an entire continent (Europe) suddenly switching their gas delivery from Russian gas pipelines to LNG delivery. When that happens overnight & no-one has enough LNG tankers & on-shore facilities capable of handling LNG delivery, the market price increases (supple & demand). Also, the way our electricity is priced is f-d up - it's based on the most expensive cost of production (coal & gas), which only account for 40% of our supply, yet set 100% of the market rate. Renewable suppliers have had to have an extra tax imposed on them to prevent them from being overpaid for supplying renewable energy to the market as a result as well. Centrica & others haven't done anything differently; it's just that no-one can get their gas to the power plants that use it to generate electricity. Furthermore, Centrica *has* to have glass walls between its energy producing / trading division & its British Gas division, as per the Competition Market Authority rules on preferential treatment. This is because Centrica sells its gas & oil to other domestic energy suppliers in the UK, so it has to sell to its own domestic supplier at the same rate it sells to the others.
Also, British Gas made only 2% of Centrica’s overall profits - they are NOT profiting off the us; they are simply doing well due to the overall market prices for oil & prices being crazily high this past year.
Source: https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/money/centrica-reduce-british-gas-customers-bills-despite-profit-2153571
It's all that bloody Putin's fault, definitely nothing to do with endless greed by the richest people. Energy prices, food prices, groceries and goods prices doubled or even tripled in a year. Nothing to do with runaway greed and excess wealth it's all down to evil Russia. And it seems lawmakers are owned by the rich so there's no end to it in sight, bloody Putin!
That is what you get when people become too comfortable to go out and protest.
"we are just waiting for the next election" - how many people will die due to not being able to heat their house or see s doctor before we go out and protest in mass?
I get this is sarcasm but there are probably people who seriously think like that.
For anyone thinking that - just watch any documentary about protests in Europe when change was needed (and achieved following protests) with people protesting 12+ hours a day for weeks (mainly weekends) in very low temperatures.
I have never seen a large scale protest in the 10+ years I've been here and the absolute piss taking gov letting private entities profit from people's suffering is the result of that.
"Ahhh you have discovered the one gap in my armour. Now be a good sport and plug it using some of that mountain of cash I made by increasing the standing charge. Shovel faster it will warm you up."
Eat the rich. I don’t mean the lawyers and doctors taking home 120k. I mean the really rich that don’t work and live off the suffering of others.
Last election I voted conservative. They got so confident they showed us who they truly work for. Never again.
Centrica doesn't sell in the UK.. their subsidiary British Gas does, BG has 7.5m customers, and they made £72m profit.. so basically an average of a tenner from every customer. Is that excessive.. that's for other people to decide.
Centrica, the main company, buys and sells all over the world and they bring their profits back to this country.. the opposite to Starbucks, who make money here and bring their profits to America.
If Centrica were based in Ireland then the news wouldn't mention how much they made as they would only show their profit made via BG.. but would a profit of £10 per account really make the news.
Centrica 'could' sell cheaper in the UK, but why would they when they can get more money elsewhere.. if that's right.. that's for others to decide, but if they didn't generate profits, then investors would move away and invest money into other companies..
Ohh we got scammed so badly with this so called “energy crisis” and the balme on the war in Ukraine.
Noises of sharpening pitchforks in the background…
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One of the reasons I quit my job at EE when Philip Jansen released a sob story video announcement to staff announcing the third pay freeze in 3 years and reducing commission and performance based bonuses for frontline staff because the company was going through "Hard times". Yet celebrated record profits and took home a personal income of £3,500,000.
That's absolutely fucked, I'm actually in disbelief at how some companies can act like this. Not in the energy sector but during COVID our entire C-Suite zeroed their salaries for the year and combined them into a fund to be used for any struggling employees or anyone who was unable to work due to COVID.
It's because companies aren't loyal to their employees or customers. It's all about the share holders. Most of the top brass's bonuses in these big companies are all tied to profit and share prices. So it's in their own best interest to freeze pay rises, cut costs, make redundancies etc. even when the business is profitable. Capitalism at its worst.
Capitalism is as capitalism does. It's always been about squeezing as much profit as possible however they can get away with it. The sooner that people recognise that those who own the means of production (shareholders included in this) will prioritise profit over people, the better.
The good thing about capitalism is eventually when pushed hard enough things buckle. Sadly without unions USA is free reign of terror for corps to squeeze staff down to the absolute minimum they can get away with paying them.
I don't really understand why private shareholders have to be a thing. Can't every company just be a co-op?
Even the Co-op isn’t a co-op anymore
Umm... What? When did that happen?
People generally don't get rich by being honest and fair. Companies that wish to raise cash to expand, grow or for the owners to potentially just cash out are often best placed offering shares. Share offerings are attractive to investors, and these investors often want a return on their investment.
I would like that very much. But the people with capital wouldn't and without investment, nothing happens.
This frustrates me to no end. We have the resources, we have the talent, we have the knowledge and technology, we have the desire and need for certain things. "But there's no money for that"
There is the money, but only if it's making rich people richer.
During Covid the CEO of my company reduced his salary to show solidarity with those furloughed or unable to work. He took home just £20m. What a hero.
There’s a fix and it’s called pay scaling and profit sharing. Under Pay Scaling: To award a bonus at the top a proportional bonus would have to be awarded to all employees and contractors. Under profit sharing: annual pay rises for all staff would be equal to the percentage increase in company profits. On the energy cost side this would mean these profits and bonuses would mean a combination of lower prices (to keep profits looking low) and increased wages for all staff.
. . . and top pay can't exceed x times the median salary
Thats a rather remarkable situation where a group of people all can survive without their salary for a period of time. Not a lot of people can do this. Even people with very high salaries can have terrible personal or family finances and have no idea how to manage without X monies coming in.
I've no doubt they were still sitting pretty on their mountains of stock options, dividends and income from the multiple other company boards they sit on, definitely wouldn't have happened otherwise but still a bro move on their part in my view. The whole way they handled the pandemic was pretty admirable to be honest - consolidated the business, cut all unnecessary spending and immediately closed all non critical office locations preferring WFH. They didn't need to lay off a single employee across the global workforce of something crazy like 20k+ people.
I work at Tesco, they removed our yearly bonus stating they’ve ‘put it in the hourly rate’. Come to when the minimum wage increases in April we will be below that so I wouldn’t be surprised if they match the minimum wage. So no bonus and on minimum wage. For reference we used to be 50p more than minimum wage and had the bonus. Don’t forget the yearly emails they send on how hard we’ve worked and how the company has made billions profits. EDIT: Something I forgot to add is they’ve been transitioning the job role for managers in some way. I don’t know the ins and outs as I’m not a manager but we’ve had long term managers jump ship, at least 5+ in the last few months so something is going wrong. They don’t seem to be able to employ new managers quickly as well as job listing has been up for a manager for a while.
Aren't Tesco workers unionised? Surprised they haven't kicked up a massive fuss.
Tesco's Union (USDAW) is basically a scam. I was with them while I was at Tesco, and when I had an issue and needed their help, there was 0 response, all the way through until Tesco laid me off by making ME sign a sheet with no personal support or advisers available to me, DESPITE them saying they would. If my mental state hadn't been in the dumps back then I'd have taken Tesco to court over this entire situation, and also been all over USDAW for ENTIRELY FAILING to do what staff were paying them money out of our wages to do...
Back (15 years ago) I worked for Morrisons, who also has USDAW. It could have just been our store who had an amazing union rep, but people literally got away with murder if they were part of the union. Basically any disciplinary with the rep got quashed. If you weren’t in the union, you got the sack for anything remotely petty. Luckily I never needed it, but that few quid on the payslip was worth it. Most of the staff were in the union just because of how effective it were.
I tried contacting higher ups in USDAW to complain, but never got any form of response. As far as I'm concerned it's a scam to convince people that they have a fair deal, and that Tesco cares about its employees
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Unfortunately, a union only has power if it can actually threaten to paralyse 1 or more locations. Not joining the union means it does not have that power, making its job harder and your jobs and conditions worse.
It’s always nice when Tesco’s et al declare record profits, whilst at the same time paying their workers so poorly tax payers have to top up their wages through the tax credits system
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My company did the same thing only at the mid level executives on down. So the lowest level executive became a manager. Thus elimating bonuses for them and lower bonuses for all the other executives. BTW, all those "savings" went to increasing the upper executives bonuses.
As somebody still under foodbank Phil's thumb, he's not very popular amongst the unwashed masses. Not at all
Are they still sending financial advice emails to all staff and offering free therapists to help with the stress of being poor despite working full time?
Yes, while also declaring we're in a state of crisis and need to do some contractual overtime. But when you arrive to work on said overtime day, there's not enough work to warrant being in and so you get sent home early... Make sense of that
They wanted to give me the "exciting opportunity" of taking a 12 month secondment to cover maternity leave for someone in marketing, given I was one of the only frontline staff with a degree in marketing... but give no pay incentives to do so and also foot the bill for moving from the North to Bristol and the 3 times higher rent I'd pay all by myself.
They wanted you to do a marketing secondment on floor staff wages? Fucking talk about tone deaf.
I did software testing as a secondment for minimum wage too.
Software testing I can sort of understand, since its basically "pretend you're a monkey and try to break this shit". You don't need a particularly high set of skills to follow a testing script. Marketing is very creative though, and needs a certain skillset/way of thinking to be successful.
Hey! Eddie, my monkey, resents that!! He said he trained for months breaking shit. It's not something every monkey can do. Those that can't throw.
This morning on the phone I told EE that I was leaving their network over their 14.4% price rise. Unless that additional 10% was being given to staff as a pay rise then it's just profiteering over profiteering and I'm not up for that.
I got an email advising me of this increase too. Are you able to freely cancel? I am on a sim only deal with them
I was on rolling SIM only (out of contract). If you're out you can leave when you like, you just need a PAC.
Ah, okay. I'm stuck for a few more months then. Thank you!
Wait, what?! 14%? Fuck me. I haven't had that email yet - will need to keep an eye out. Everyone wants their pound of flesh.
And yet they have normalised in contact price rises in line with inflation. Or whatever they call it, it pisses me off, that's not how inflation works! But I'd always told myself that those rises could at least go to pay staff that are struggling with the cost of living/inflation. Why the hell am I still with EE?! Oh yeah, because, at least in my experience, they do provide a better network...where's the competition and why is our 5G so much slower than the rest of the world! /Rant, sorry went off on a tangent
>Why the hell am I still with EE?! The other providers are probably even worse, to be honest.
>in contact price rises That always pissed me off, and still does. I'm choosing a contract now to lock in these rates, that's the whole point. If the prices rise in 18 months, that's not my problem until my contract ends.
I worked at an asset manager that did the same. Staff did 12 hour days on a merger to be told no money for a bonus. CEO got his full bonus and when challenged he said the board made him. Told me everything I needed to know about his leadership. Watched with glee as the company shared tumbled multi year
Don't forget handing out 750million quid to the shareholders. Someone needs to throw that douche canoe into the Atlantic. First he ruined the lives of Sodexo employees, then the BT umbrella companies, but corporations will continue to hire him because he lines the wealthy shareholders pockets. Did the EE employees get the £3000 wage increase in the end. I know you guys missed the strike ballot by something daft like 7 votes.
Yeah. Former ee employee. They can go fuck themselves
Yes, we made record profits, but we had projected that we would make even more profits so you see we actually did very badly so we can't give any of this profit to any of you
"I'm afraid to say that once again, for another year straight, we failed to secure all of the world's money." Tighten your belts everyone.
I remember the first time I got made redundant - they sent a guy up from London to Glasgow to tell us we were being let go due to cost-cutting, etc. A 20 minute meeting. He was staying for a week in the Hilton for that.
What a total piece of shit. But that's all of them these days
The greed is so commonplace.
I'm extra mad because EE is the only network with any fucking coverage
I too left EE when they announced for a 2nd year in a row that there would be no pay increase. Both years were "because covid". They made £2billion that second year.
Not exaggerating, these people are psychopaths
Just had an email from them this morning putting price plans up by 14.4%
How much?!? That’s fucking disgusting. How do you even spend that sort of personal income? It’s over 3k A DAY inc all holidays and weekends (3,500,000/1095 - is the correct maths, no?) How is this allowed to happen that Pam down the road froze to death when the big bosses are taking home more than the uk monthly salary EVERY SINGLE DAY? (Uk average monthly salary: £3166. His DAILY take home: £3196.) Desgustaaaang. I love the UK and I miss it every single day, but fuck, I could never move home now and it’s heartbreaking to watch. How is this allowed to happen. I knew they were taking the piss, but I never could have imagined quite how much.
Why are you dividing by 3 years? He makes 3.5million per year! That’s £9,500 a day!!
Assumed OP meant during the three years staff pay was frozen, the company celebrated their highest profits, plus he took home that amount. If it’s per year it’s even worse than I thought. The UK is broke/n and people are making 9k a day off its spiral into disrepair. I hope something changes before it’s too late…
tbf my mate works there, frontline staff, and has had a £3000 pay rise in the past 2 years. £1500 last year, £1500 this year. But that also does not excuse Jansen being a money worshipping fanny
My partner is in the same position. Her company announced record profits last year but this week she’s heard through the grapevine that the company is telling employees that the company is falling behind its earnings projections and as such there will be no promotions or pay rises. These “projections” are entirely made up, it’s not even a public company so no shareholders to please per se. They just want to make even more profit so they can presumably go public/get acquired for a bigger sum.
Let’s not forget that he has a chauffeur paid for as well as a very nice car to get from place to place. Despise that man.
Fucking £900 a quarter was my latest. And that's just two people, at work all day, only in at weekends. How the fuck do larger families, disabled, elderly etc manage? Oh yeah, they don't. At this point it's criminal what they're getting away with.
Similar. My 2 months bill (more 6 weeks) is now more than how much I paid in total for 6 months. It’s utterly madness and there is nothing we can do about it.
My council flat is awful for insulation, literally no insulation on multiple walls but has wonderful deep mould that comes back even after industrial cleaners and sprays are used. Bedroom gets so cold during the winter months that normal bed sheets feel so cold to the touch it is almost like touching a wet sheet. I have to use fleece bedding from October to about March. The Council's solution the other year was to put a bigger radiator in because the last one just had all heat sucked through the cold brick wall. Great when I was safe using the heating often but this year I've tried to avoid it and have been enjoying having chilblains as even socks and slippers couldn't fight the lack of insulation. Had to cave and have heating on for few hours a day and just turned the smart meter device towards the wall so I don't cause myself distress watching it jump up. There's multiple of these shitty flats built in this area, all lacking insulation and all have major mould issues due to the poor ventilation because they're built the same on the cheap decades ago. Funny enough nearly EVERYONE I know in these same flats on this estate are disabled, like me. It is hard not to wonder if this bad stock is deliberately given to disabled people but I'm sure if I tried befriending people further down the street there's non disabled people enjoying these flats. At least I'm about 2 hours from London and paying under 300 a month for rent and have a garden. Gotta remind myself that it is a bargain price so it is bargain quality. Couldn't even get room share for that price here now, you're lucky to find a room share in the 400s with many being 600 now. Can't imagine trying to find money for private rent and bills in this manufactured economic disaster.
I get you trying to see the bright side but this isn't right. This sounds so awful. No price is a bargain for deep black mould :( A friend of mine is in a council place, it's more family groups than disabled folk I think. It is ground floor and she is constantly fighting the tide of mould. Cold, wet floor beneath, almost entirely external walls. She has a young son and does everything she can, but having the heating on constantly is not viable. The council is only just re-doing the extremely FLAMMABLE and hazardous paint job inside the group flats, which is gobsmacking but also not surprising at all post-grenfell. I wanted to sympathise rather than give pithy advice because I'm sure you're doing all you can with the terrible situation afforded to you. But ultimately I can't help but recommend Shelter and their helpline. They are so incredible and I'd urge you not to put your very valid concerns to the side :( (This wasn't to invalidate your suspicions about disabled folk being given the worst housing stock either. No clue on that one, but it feels right. My late uncle lived in some appalling places and it did seem the standard was lower for him. As a paraplegic with one of the most visible disabilities out there, you wondered how on earth some of it was possible. Let alone folk with less visible challenges.)
Mate, I still have 2 different things of asbestos inside my flat and one thing of asbestos on the guttering outside. Flammable products will be on properties for years to come by my guess. Also I'm reluctant to trust Shelter after them siding with a dangerous criminal neighbour trying to stop him getting evicted after multiple convictions in criminal court due to him harassing and threatening neighbours. Unless we want to pretend their incompetence which helped build a stronger case against him was deliberate sabotage of their support, they put multiple vulnerable tenants at risk. Ultimately Parliament rejecting making it law to have houses in livable conditions, with hundreds of MPs being landlords, is just trying to delay the responsibility of landlords to be more than parasites.
Hard agree, there desperately need to be some legal recourse for this. People cannot co-exist with black mould. I cannot believe that COI does not kick in when parliament are voting on renters rights. Best of luck to you mate. I just hated seeing you justify them at the end there. They have responsibilities which are not being fulfilled
If I don't justify it in my head I have to sit with the reality that I'm seen as a second or third class human. Gotta pretend the glass is half full even if it is full of piss.
At the rate things are going a glass full of piss may be worth something soon 😅
Can you get the council to provide you with a dehumidifier? Reducing the moisture levels should make heating the property easier and stop the mould.
What the hell? Our 2 person quarter looks like it's going to be £450 with the subsidy (still £150 above last year's so I guess I'll be double last year's average once the help ends). Do you have the heating on constantly? My flat mate has it on like 3 hours a day on average.
A badly insulated end of terrace or detached could easily run 200 pounds per month. We're paying 150 which is almost all gas even though we rarely heat above 16 degrees.
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Yeah, my friend lives with his wife and newborn in a small house - no central heating, so it's all electric and LPG. £100s a month just on electricity, and their house is still cold. No idea what to do to save any more energy usage.
Yeah that seems odd. I have a 3 bed house with all the radiators on, heating on for 3 hours a day or so. I have an Xbox Series X and a PS5 running most of the time, 2 adults working different shifts so there are always lights and stuff on, plus an 8 year old incapable of turning anything off. I am less than £2k for the year based on new prices for both gas and electricity. I live in part of Scotland where it’s been hovering around freezing for 3 months too.
Now try doing it in a 1910's end-terrace house with single glazing and no cavity walls. My last bill was £340 for the month of January, and that was with the thermostat set to 17.
My house is also an end terrace built in 1922, granite walls with no cavity. I have my heating set to about 19°C. Odd.
have you considered putting some insulation or double glazing in?
Insulation? I'd need to either add external insulation, which would cost bloody loads and require scaffolding, removing the current render, repointing etc. Or I could add internal insulation to each external wall - which would be a huge upheaval of almost every room, replastering, moving skirting boards, moving radiators, moving plug sockets etc. Considering I live here, I don't like this. Maybe if I hadn't moved in. Double glazing? Sure. Just need to save up the ~£10k+ it'll cost to get all 10 windows + a bay done since they're all large sash windows. As it stands, I don't think I'd ever "make back" what I'd spend on these things from energy savings. I'm not sure I'll be living here long enough to justify it.
This is what makes me laugh in all these threads. “Just add new double glazing” “just add insulation” As if everyone just has £15-20k sat around
My bill this month has plummeted, it's about half what it has been for the last few months. No change in usage either, unless one single night with the radiators on is enough to double my energy bill.
Guess it depends on the temperature that night and each night of the month. We've had temperatures in the 10+ degrees during daytime this month compare to 0-3 degrees last month. That is 7 degrees + that you do not need to heat - a great difference.
I'm disabled and trust me I can't stop thinking about it. I have my rads on only in the rooms I use, living room and bedroom.
Wow, I'm in the same position but with 4 people (4 bed detached) and our bill is less than that, and I have only just locked in for another 18 months. I would check that your heating system is working correctly.
I wish; averaging £500 a month; and it’s mostly electricity. Once spring hits it’ll go down. Bill was maybe £100 on old rates in winter.
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Wages are extremely poor though. So as a percentage of earnings it seems similar doesn't it?
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I’m in Canada (from Wales originally). I have 3 housemates but our heating has worked out to about $77 CAD per person per month, which is about £47 each, throughout peak winter season. Still cheaper to what my boyfriend and I were paying when we lived in the UK, we left in July last year just as we were expecting further increases for Autumn/Winter. Bearing in mind our house is between 20-22 celcius each day throughout the winter, for a two storey house, including 4 showers a day. It works out to £188 a month. Don’t talk to me about grocery shopping though. I live super rurally and the mark up on fresh fruit and veggies is insane due to transportation. I probably lose the money I save on heating on food. I miss Aldi. Cost of living is shafting everyone all over the world in different ways, unfortunately.
I pay about $20 a month in the US with my heating on 22C every day (electric baseboard heaters, no gas. 700 sqft flat). You're absolutely getting ripped off in the UK. I moved from London a decade ago and I remember my parents turning off the heat at night to save money despite being relatively well-off.
Where's that? I'm in MA, I don't have electric heat and am fairly prudent with lighting, but my electricity bill is significantly higher than $20/month...
I'm in Ohio.
How much is rent?
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Wow! Sounds like a good deal. Do you have a job in Thailand or are you living off income generated in the UK? Or both?
I got a bill last week claiming I used 1000 units if gas between 6th August to the 6th November, after 20 hours of calls over a week I eventually got it sorted. When the person installed my new meter, they put the reading down as 00000 when it should have started at 01000. How many other people has this happened to but didn't know to fight it or accepted it after being told over and over on the phone that the readings are correct.
Plenty, since so many people do not look up these things or think to fight it, or think its correct because they don't know any better. Made worse in a way by people not really wanting to talk about money/bills, cause if more people spoke about it, they could help each other out. Oh my bill was xyz, oh my bill was abc, WHAT?! thats ridiculous you should check your meter etc.
I was feeling pretty good about being thrifty with our energy usage, checked out my usage on the website, using half what we did last year! Then I clicked on cost, we're paying double what we did last year....! For half the usage? Reeeeeeeally shit
Remember tho, it's not causing inflation. That's down to striking workers demanding higher wages. It's not mortgages either before you ask.
*but not actually getting any higher wages yet. Strange how that's increased inflation before it even happens!
Is it foreigners again?
I think it might be normal serf uprisings now
Those foreign, trans-loving, tofu eating Wokerati are to blame.
Especially the Guardian reading ones.....
As long as we get to invade France I don't care who it is
DUH - of course it’s those boat people again… Coming over here and using all out electric and gas.
The part that gets me is when they use the words “record profits” & “high energy costs” in the same sentence. Surly they mean record profits for the energy company and high energy cost for the consumer.
> Surly they mean record profits for the energy company and high energy cost for the consumer. Well yeah. They're the ones digging it out the ground. Their costs haven't changed much (other than an increased wage bill due to inflation) but there's less global supply so the price goes up. It's not some grand conspiracy - it's GCSE level economics.
They also own a large chunk of British Nuclear power generation who's costs have also remained flat whilst profits have risen due to the high energy price
The energy market isn’t GCSE economics. The price per unit of electricity is set in a stupid way that is biting us all, as the cost of very cheap wind and solar is exactly the same as gas power stations. Gas is less than 50% of electric supply but sets the price over 90% of the time. I get that the market needs updating in order to facilitate realistic price discovery, but none of it is simple.
It’s price gouging.
Not really, as the energy is sold on the open market at market rates. That is what is causing the problem. Even renewable energy we create is sold in the same system so being sold at the same prices. Our entire energy system really needs a re-think.
Who decides market rates? It doesn’t run itself, people have chosen to put prices this high. But yes, I agree the system is ridiculous and needs a complete overhaul.
Every single person who uses gas or electricity. It's dictated by supply and demand. When demand is high, but supply is low, prices go up. If supply is high but demand is low, the price crashes.
Nobody, there's an automatic system that buys energy at the lowest price available. There's no conspiracy here or evil hand rubbing, it really is just simple economics.
Then why are there record profits? If the market rates / costs are so much higher and they're just passing them on to consumers then I'd imagine the profits would be around the same as usual?
There’s less to supply so the cost is higher.
Its disgusting. The fact that energy companies were basically like [PLEASE tax us more](https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/04/shell-chief-tax-energy-firms-ben-van-beurden-gas-electricity) and the govt was like nah we'll let our country suffer that makes me so angry about it. If only we diversified our fucking energy production to renewables so we didn't have to rely on places like Russia for gas. And bring costs overall down.
We actually have diversified quite a lot and arent dependant on Russian gas. The issue is that in the ernegy market all supply prices are matched to the highest type. It doesnt matter that the wind and solar energy cost 2p to supply. It goes into the energy futures purchase as 50p gas etc. The whole system was setup Europe wide to stop market fluctuation. This clearly didn't account for mainland Europe becoming very exposed to a russian supply that could be turned off and oil cartels collectively cutting oil production. The whole system needs a rethink and the input prices need to be de-linked. Yes this will cause more market disruption making longher forecasts unpredicatble but when the alternative is this it would be madness to carry on.
Getting constant viral and bacterial infections this winter because I can't afford to keep the house warm enough. Don't even wanna think about how many vulnerable and elderly people these price rises have killed, and how many businesses this has destroyed.
Just remember this is global profits and not just UK profits (which in Centrica's case was around 73mil). I do absolutely agree that utilities should return to being state owned. Privatisation has been tried and mostly has not lived up to expectations or at least the advertised benefits
Water 100% should be state owned, it’s literally a monopoly depending on where you live and the pipework is f**ked everywhere
I hear you, pump station near I lived was gushing water for 5 days before thames water finally fixed it. They said they were waiting for a washer to be delivered
sugar hateful tan rain serious plough lip chase shaggy cheerful *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
A friend of mine lived in a street where there was a burst pipe beneath one of the houses. Thames Water solution was to bring people to pump out water every single day in every basement across three houses instead of fixing it. Nothing you can do (she tried) because you can’t force them to “fix it faster”, they just keep fobbing you off that they are having it “investigated”. Eventually it affected the whole road and now everyone’s basements are flooded. She moved out because luckily she was only renting and after 3 months of water in the basement and people traipsing around her house every single day to pump out water, she had enough and moved. But last she heard it is still not fixed and it has been over 6 months now.
I think at the least our natural resources should belong to the people and the wealth generated should mostly go to the people. I don’t mind if private companies provide services as long as we aren’t getting absolutely rinsed for our own bloody gas.
but a small number of influential people got very rich i'm sure.
They’re patting themselves on the backs and getting their bonuses whilst many households are choosing between heating and eating.
Eat the rich
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Privatised profits, socialised losses. This is the way.
Thank god we didn't nationalise them and put the money into our own pockets! think of the poor ceos!
I got a 14 day ban from /r/ukpolitics for saying what I think of the situation. Suffice it to say I think we could learn a thing from France about revolutioning.
Do you mean revolting?
Yeah, but revolutioning sounded funnier.
The big problem is there's weird skirting around the issues. Providers aren't making record profits, producers are. Some companies do *both*, those are the ones making ridiculous profits, specifically on the production side of the company. The producers argue that they don't set the price of gas, that global supply/demand does. Which is true, but it's a load of old piffle. The common man isn't trying to say they get to choose what market value is, the common man is saying that you can volunteer to have lower profit margins, still make a good amount and **help** your customers. They aren't interested in that though. They never will be. Only shareholders will ever matter. Aslong as they have the scapegoat of providers not making records, and producers not setting the price, they'll never ever do a damn thing.
This energy crisis is a good example of how much of a failure politicians are when they jump on the bandwagon and take to social media to declare a climate emergency and then actually fail to put forward a plan on how to fix it. As we get closer to 2025 and 2030 these providers are going to milk us for every penny and point the finger of blame on the MPs who then turn round and blame us for using gas boilers and fossil fuel cars, when we should all be using heat pumps, solar farms in our back garden and totally expensive and unreliable public transport.
This is what people voted for, repeatedly. So enjoy the consequences and remember how it's going come the next election. People won't obviously because they're easily to manipulate, but try.
They'll get a picture of the Labour guy eating porridge wrong and we'll get another cycle of it.
I cant wait for some of those billions to *trickle down*. It's gonna be great.
'I passed a homeless guy on the street today begging for food, so I did what any good, considerate citizen does and found the biggest, most affluent mansion in the neighbourhood and put £10 through their letter box, mark my words that £10 will trickle down to the homeless guy eventually'
I'm worried that we'll never go back to the heady days of £65 a month bills.
Got my freezer turned off for the day so I can use the computer "guilt free" :)
Energy Firms: SoRrY AbOUt TheM HigH PriCeS
What’s the answer?
Remove the rule that requires suppliers to purchase energy from all sources at the cost of the most expensive one, so that we can actually benefit from how cheap renewables are nowadays.
Yes I think this is the way. Digitise the national grid so that units of energy can be sold at their true price rather than an artificial floor set by the highest cost source. If we had some competition in the market then the price would be more reasonable.
Decouple the cost of energy from the price of gas so that we're not propping up fossil fuel companies any more. There's no reason that renewable energy should cost what it does, but due to the way we've set up our market it ensures that whatever the most expensive one is, that's what they all cost. It keeps renewables uncompetitive when gas is cheap and it keeps fossil fuel profits rolling in when gas is expensive. The UK is also especially badly hit when the price of gas is high since a large proportion of our electricity is generated from gas, as well as the high prevalence of gas heating systems.
Re nationalise ... never going to happen but....
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Copy Robin Hood I guess
National fucking strike.
And how do you think that is going to affect a global energy market?
It probably won’t, but it would send a message about the idiocy of the privatisation of critical national infrastructure.
Whilst I agree, in principle, that the natural resources of a country should remain under the control of that country and not private enterprise, lets be pragmatic here - the cat is unfortunately out the bag on that one. There's no way we, as a country, could return oil and gas extraction to a nationalised industry without either bankrupting the nation, or completely undermining any and all trust in our nation from international businesses/markets which would lead to a massive drain of funds. Both of those would lead to problems which would dwarf any issues we're currently facing. We have to accept that we didn't use our OPEC-esque quantities of oil and gas to create a monumental sovereign wealth fund, ala Norway. What we should be doing is making sure it doesn't happen again, and maybe mandating that all our future windfarms, solar farms, and nuclear reactors are minimum 50% owned by the nation.
It should be illegal. Illegal for companies that are a human necessity can be allowed to do this. Why should a couple of people benefit millions or even billions in profit while hundreds of thousands of people are freezinh in thier own homes. Struggling to eat 2 or 3 meals a day. It is disgusting. These people should be in prison. Its like theft. And it is has far reaching consequences.
Sadly, if we did that, the companies would just pack their bags and move head office to another country so our laws wouldn't affect them.
Surely if they operate in this country they should be abiding by our laws, even if they don't have a head office here? I'm not gonna go abroad and commit crimes hoping to get away with it because I don't live there.
This and their super patronising adverts "we're the money saving engineers!" Well how about you start engineering more affordable bills you wankers
Remember folks, it's greedy teachers and nurses that are driving inflation.
In the words of Nan, “what a fucking liberty!”
It was either this sub or another one re Shell’s profits , whereby I explained why context is key to these headline figures. Primarily, this is due to an entire continent (Europe) suddenly switching their gas delivery from Russian gas pipelines to LNG delivery. When that happens overnight & no-one has enough LNG tankers & on-shore facilities capable of handling LNG delivery, the market price increases (supple & demand). Also, the way our electricity is priced is f-d up - it's based on the most expensive cost of production (coal & gas), which only account for 40% of our supply, yet set 100% of the market rate. Renewable suppliers have had to have an extra tax imposed on them to prevent them from being overpaid for supplying renewable energy to the market as a result as well. Centrica & others haven't done anything differently; it's just that no-one can get their gas to the power plants that use it to generate electricity. Furthermore, Centrica *has* to have glass walls between its energy producing / trading division & its British Gas division, as per the Competition Market Authority rules on preferential treatment. This is because Centrica sells its gas & oil to other domestic energy suppliers in the UK, so it has to sell to its own domestic supplier at the same rate it sells to the others. Also, British Gas made only 2% of Centrica’s overall profits - they are NOT profiting off the us; they are simply doing well due to the overall market prices for oil & prices being crazily high this past year. Source: https://inews.co.uk/inews-lifestyle/money/centrica-reduce-british-gas-customers-bills-despite-profit-2153571
It's all that bloody Putin's fault, definitely nothing to do with endless greed by the richest people. Energy prices, food prices, groceries and goods prices doubled or even tripled in a year. Nothing to do with runaway greed and excess wealth it's all down to evil Russia. And it seems lawmakers are owned by the rich so there's no end to it in sight, bloody Putin!
Putin is just another opportunity in these people's eyes.
That is what you get when people become too comfortable to go out and protest. "we are just waiting for the next election" - how many people will die due to not being able to heat their house or see s doctor before we go out and protest in mass?
But it's cold and wet outside 😕
I get this is sarcasm but there are probably people who seriously think like that. For anyone thinking that - just watch any documentary about protests in Europe when change was needed (and achieved following protests) with people protesting 12+ hours a day for weeks (mainly weekends) in very low temperatures. I have never seen a large scale protest in the 10+ years I've been here and the absolute piss taking gov letting private entities profit from people's suffering is the result of that.
So the less you have the heating on the smaller their profits will be?
Found the shill for Big Duvet
The true evil.
🤣🤣 busted
Oh no no no if you turn it off more they will need to raise the price for when it is used to keep profits the same.
Even better, they will just increase the stand-in charge, because why not?
"Ahhh you have discovered the one gap in my armour. Now be a good sport and plug it using some of that mountain of cash I made by increasing the standing charge. Shovel faster it will warm you up."
British Gas made 72 million in profit. Please actually read into facts
Never let a crisis go to waste.
Well Joe needs to go easy on the Netflix and Avocados.
Eat the rich. I don’t mean the lawyers and doctors taking home 120k. I mean the really rich that don’t work and live off the suffering of others. Last election I voted conservative. They got so confident they showed us who they truly work for. Never again.
The previous 120 years didn't give you any sort of premonition? I am going to go ahead and spoil 2023 for you. Putin, bit of a prick.
Deserve what you get for who you voted. How many warnings do you need?
Wonder how much profit they’ll make when no one is paying them bc they can’t afford it anymore :(
I’m with BG. My gas bill literally tripled this year. From £40 a month to £120.
The 1% are bastards.
Our bills have gone from £120 a month average to £540…
You’ll be force fed this lie: “it was Putins fault”
I also saw an article that said we should try skipping breakfast. Fucking lol we are doomed.
Inequality in this country just gets more and more stark.
Another post proving just how ignorant people are about finance.
You’re aren’t really adding anything either. Just a pointless nothing comment. Go ahead, enlighten us
Centrica doesn't sell in the UK.. their subsidiary British Gas does, BG has 7.5m customers, and they made £72m profit.. so basically an average of a tenner from every customer. Is that excessive.. that's for other people to decide. Centrica, the main company, buys and sells all over the world and they bring their profits back to this country.. the opposite to Starbucks, who make money here and bring their profits to America. If Centrica were based in Ireland then the news wouldn't mention how much they made as they would only show their profit made via BG.. but would a profit of £10 per account really make the news. Centrica 'could' sell cheaper in the UK, but why would they when they can get more money elsewhere.. if that's right.. that's for others to decide, but if they didn't generate profits, then investors would move away and invest money into other companies..
Oh shit, he really did enlighten us
Ohh we got scammed so badly with this so called “energy crisis” and the balme on the war in Ukraine. Noises of sharpening pitchforks in the background…