FUEL PRICES ARE SKY HIGH!

July 2008

Electricity
At the beginning of the year we saw an increase of about 13% for electricity, this would push the average yearly bill up by approximately £65. Now with the new round of increases it can only get worse for the poor consumer. Go Green, Get energy saving light bulbs, turn appliances off when not in use. Do what you can to directly reduce your own electricity costs and pay less! See our How to save energy page.

Petrol & Diesel
This really makes my sad! As the price per barrel of Oil increased, so did the prices the fuel pump. So why does the price not fall when the price per barrel comes down significantly…. Greed? The motorist really is getting hit hard with the government’s constant pressure. The New Vehicle Tax prices are ridiculous; surely they can not carry that threat though to fruition! Some families are going to have to pay about £250 next year for road tax, and £450 they year after. Some will pay up to £750 for one year’s road tax! This is criminal! The Government is using the Green slant for this Tax assault. But it has not been thought through at all.

Mr. Smith may have a larger engine, so he pays more duty on fuel anyway. He may though only drive a few thousand miles a year. So why should he pay more Road Tax than Mr. Jones who has a slightly smaller engine but drives 40,000 miles a year? Surely Mr. Jones is more of an environmental problem? He may output slightly less Co2 but he’s kicking out ten times as much as Mr. Smith. The answer would be to increase Fuel prices, so the more mileage you do the more of an impact you have on the environment and therefore the more you should pay. Alas though, the government can’t do that, they already have Petrol and Diesel prices maxed out!

They are also offering somewhat of a fake carrot for the motorist. 'We are going to freeze the October increase of 2p per litre'. Great (Sarcasm oozing!). That will save the average motorist about £12 a year. Deduct that from your increased Road Tax charges and you'll still be a lot, and I mean a lot worse off!

Ouch... So we have now been informed that domestic fuel prices may be increasing by a potential 70% by the end of the year! How can the majority of families take on these inflated prices?

Apparently it will push more people into what the government call 'Fuel Poverty' , this is what you become if you spend 10% or more of your household income on energy. Nice!

Gas
In March this year we were shocked to find some gas suppliers hiked their prices up by an astonishing 22% in one swoop! . An extra 200,000 older people are pushed into fuel poverty when a 10% increase occurs, so this particular price rise had a wide effect on vulnerable pensioners. So the new increase of upto 70% could see another 1.4 million pensioners pushed over the fuel poverty threshold! Surely the government needs to act now before its too late. How many pensioners need to die this winter because they cant afford to keep warm?