British Gas Price Hike
British Gas has just announced that their customers will face eye watering price increases of 35% on gas and 9% on electricity.
The news comes at the same time as parent company Centrica revealed profits of £880 million, which is a substantial decrease on last year's bottom line figure of £1.24 billion.
Particularly hard hit have been British Gas's residential profits, which have seen a slump of 69% over the first half of 2008.
Today's news will see the average dual fuel customer facing an annual bill of £1,305, which is an increase of £261 on the previous figure.
I make no apologies for the fact that I was all in favour of the Conservative's decision to privatise the national utilities in the early 1990s. In principle it was a good idea - it opened up a competitive market, which should have secured affordable and better quality services for the consumer.
It also made the Treasury a handy lump sum of cash when the country was in serious economic difficulty. We're in that situation again now, but there's nothing left for the current Government to sell.
Alas, today we see the other side of that fateful decision to sell the nation's resources - the side that would rather see pensioners go cold this winter than disappoint shareholders with declining profits.
How much more can the average householder take?
The news comes at the same time as parent company Centrica revealed profits of £880 million, which is a substantial decrease on last year's bottom line figure of £1.24 billion.
Particularly hard hit have been British Gas's residential profits, which have seen a slump of 69% over the first half of 2008.
Today's news will see the average dual fuel customer facing an annual bill of £1,305, which is an increase of £261 on the previous figure.
I make no apologies for the fact that I was all in favour of the Conservative's decision to privatise the national utilities in the early 1990s. In principle it was a good idea - it opened up a competitive market, which should have secured affordable and better quality services for the consumer.
It also made the Treasury a handy lump sum of cash when the country was in serious economic difficulty. We're in that situation again now, but there's nothing left for the current Government to sell.
Alas, today we see the other side of that fateful decision to sell the nation's resources - the side that would rather see pensioners go cold this winter than disappoint shareholders with declining profits.
How much more can the average householder take?
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