big six

Across the UK millions of families and businesses are feeling the economic squeeze.

As anybody who has recently received their bill for last winter will be painfully aware, soaring costs of energy are a huge reason for this.

Shocking new analysis by Bloomberg New Energy Finance for Greenpeace, shows that most of the Big Six energy utilities haven’t been investing money from customer bills in a way that brings energy prices under control and secures a clean energy supply for the UK.

Millions of us are feeling the economic squeeze just now - not least because of the astronomical rise in our energy bills. The average household energy bill rose from £605 in 2004 to £1060 by 2010 and since then it’s risen even further. Secratary of Sate Ed Davey needs to stand up to the energy bosses and put people and the climate before profits.

This blog was originally posted on the New Statesman website on 9 Feb 2012.

Politicians have queued up to announce the dawn of the era of 'new capitalism'. Yet many commentators seemed less convinced; instead seeing merely the triumph of the old capitalism over any viable alternative. It seemed that having got drunk, fallen over and been sick in its hat, capitalism had woken up in 2012 feeling remarkably perky. It was the rest of us who had the hangover.

Over the last two weeks all of the Big Six energy companies - E.On, RWE, nPower, British Gas, EDF, Scottish Power, and Scottish and Southern Energy - have announced reduction in their prices for gas or electricity. However, our analysis of the reductions in wholesale prices compared to the retail prices show that the Big Six are not passing on the fulls savings to their customers.