I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was given a refund of £12 by my electricity supplier towards the cost of my last electricity bill. This was made under the Government Electricity Rebate (GER) scheme and is a government contribution to help lower consumer energy bills. It is part of a wider package of measures which will reduce household energy bills by an average of around £50 per year.
British Gas have announced that they will cut 5% (£37 per household). This is welcome news but not enough when oil prces have gone down by 20%. These are meagre amounts and are too little too late.
When oil prices are falling and energy companies are expected to increase their profits, the pressure on suppliers to drop their prices further must mount.
We need to have power, we need to use gas to stay warm in winter and cannot revert to using cow dung or wood for cooking and heating. People who suffer most from the indiscriminate high prices are retired senior citizens who stay in cold and damp houses and suffer from depression and other illnesses and be a burden on the health service.
The solution is to nationalise the companies providing the indispensable utilities like gas, electricity and water and or subsidise the cost of these utilities. Instead of giving aid to foreign countries which in fact carry a chip on their shoulders against us, let the charity begin at home!
Dinesh Sheth
Newbury Park, Ilford
