Thatcher convinced everyone we should all own a little bit of our utilities unfortunately when the individual saw a profit they sold their shares. Same as selling Council houses, people saw a profit after a few years and sold them meaning we have very few social houses.

it certainly showed for those around at the time how snobbish this country was.. people were judged on where they lived, what job they actually did, bought house or rentad but very rarely the person they were. one aspect of life thats has certainly improved since those days. we actually had a table in the canteen called the stocks and shares table where all the same minded talked nothing else but that subject. preferred the shit stirers and football table myself.

I can’t get my head round this energy cap thing, does it means energy companies can’t charge more than it meaning they can charge what they like up to the energy cap limit ?

Had a quick read up, the price cap is being reduced yet energy costs will still go up 20%, how can this be with energy companies making billions the wholesale price of gas is below the level pre the Ukraine war, they are taking the p*** !

The Tories could help the plebs (us)over night by reducing the VAT, Not going to happen though is it.

Think some geek on tv said its based purely on the average bills across all homes and it could be higher or lower. Basically its nothing but a figure to appease the masses and means bog all
.

no party will help you with that. you have to help yourself finding people who do not charge it.

It would be nice to have a VAT cut but, as you say, it won't happen. The reason it won't happen or isn't likely to happen is because of the current demands on the public purse which would indicate an increase in taxation not a decrease.
Public sector workers demanding above inflation rises, people demanding more help to cope with the cost of living, the NHS demanding more funding, as are schools, councils etc., will all put a strain on the treasury, whilst treasury income is falling due to businesses making less profit or going bust because of rising costs etc is the perfect scenario to increase taxation not reduce it.
As well as the fact if you put more money into the spending power of the economy the big danger is further inflation which, in turn, will make the cost of living even more precarious further fuelling higher wage demands.
It's not easy is it, especially if you carry the title of Chancellor of the exchequer.

prefer em to increase PAYE contributions and reduce VAT by the same amount. People pay the same VAT whether they are millionaires or on basic benefits where paying more income tax shows you are earning more.

There will be some millionaires paying less income tax than us plebs (c. Mr G)

we have no options though where they have all the loopholes on their side. trouble is those who make the laws mix with the well healed and not us PAYE payers.

They are self employed where there is tax exemption rules, we are pay as go where the rules are set in stone.

They are not all self employed, there are Directors of companies who take a wage were they pay no tax but have dividends paid into directors loan accounts and allow them to accumulate whilst putting the maximum allowed into their pensions. Expenses pay a big part in their income as well. Not to mention their squirreling adventures.
There are ways.
Not really a subject for discussion on an open forum because, to all extents and purposes, everything is above board.

To paid with dividends you have to be self employed, they set up a company and they are the sole director, I was self employed for years and know how the system works, a bit too complex to explain. Nothing what they do is illegal, it’s tax evasion which is illegal tax avoidance is not.

I was a director for years and owned one third of the company ( which was limited) and a part of my income came from dividends. Most company directors who are also shareholders get dividend payments as well as a salary. It is common practise. Each year at the AGM the board declare dividends as a right or agree to waive them. Putting them in Director's loan accounts protects the company's cash flow. Director share holding is encouraged as it demonstrates an invested interest in the business. Share award schemes are also available for employees and are generally issued at around a 20% purchasing discount. Those with shares subsequently enjoy any declared dividend.

I had an email today from Scottish Power today.

It seems despite the government prolonging the energy price limit thing, prices are still going up, standing charges etc, so it WILL STILL COST MORE.

It’s heads they win, tails I lose.

Twats.

I had email from British gas last week saying the government has frozen the price limit
But we will soon get in touch with you about ykur new price charges.
So sounds like the unit prices are frozen but standing charges will be going up.
The burgling bastads.

I was in Tesco the other day and the price rises have been staggering across all products.
As an example 79p for a jacket potato when Aldi are selling at 23p.
This is nothing but blatant profiteering on a huge scale.

biggest scam is that standing charge. paying for something you do not use. many people have static homes they use from easter to october but will have to pay for something that they are not in their property to use.

You used to be able to have an energy supplier where you didn’t pay a Standing Charge, the tariffs were higher, there was a reason why they were stopped, but I can’t remember why.
I pay just over £25 a month even when I am away even though I don’t use one unit of energy, the reason the companies say you pay a Standing Charge is to maintain the supply systems. Water is the same, I don’t use one drop when I am away but still pay Sewage Charges again they told me it was to maintain the system.

British Gas
Cut gas n leccy unit price by a massive 1p.
But ramped standing charges up to £328 a year.

Burgling bastads.

do not mind paying for anything i use even if i grumble about the charge. paying the dreaded VAT is bad enough but paying just to receive something you use or not is just robbery. surely they can use the money they get for using it be used to maintain the system. its as bad as that service charge restaurants attempt to get out of you, but at least you can opt out of that if you fancy making a scene.

Benchmark Brent crude is currently trading at $76.22 per barrel, while a therm of gas is around 60p, well off highs of around $130 and 600p respectively seen last summer.
Gas is now a tenth of the price it was last year, has anyone noticed their gas bill coming down, similar petrol/diesel, has the price fallen retrospectively ?

Work it out, this is the globalists road to net zero, with the government trying to get rid of gas (fossil fuel) and pricing it up to electric levels, remember they want us all to give up our gas boilers for electric or grossly expensive and useless heat pumps. Starmer even wants to appease the woke audience by stopping the search for oil and gas and moving staff in those industries to green industries..,fucking useless, gormless politician with naive ideas.
We are moving into a world run by middle age, spineless fuckwit mature students with no understanding of the average persons life…in a world where so called ‘leaders’ defy science by stating women can have a penis to mollycoddle a minority is beyond comprehension.

Going all electric boilers, cars etc presents a problem we would need to build a shed load of power stations which take years to design and build.
Stopping oil and gas development so we are then reliant on importing it, people have short memories as we can be held to ransom. All our utilities are foreign owned and they are screwing us.
I would like Starmer to detail how or what type of jobs in the green energy sector to make up for the thousands that will be lost if he carries his policies through. He is only appeasing the greens as they are sure to win quite a few votes in the G.E.

Starmer is like a lot of people in power and classes anyone in overalls who has to do some actual work as just switching seamlessly from one work discipline to another effortlessly and can be switched like Lego blocks…which just reveals their utter ignorance of life in the real world.

like living in two completely different worlds. our world and the ones starmer and the rest live in. they were always accused of not living in our world and not understanding, but now its gone a step even further that seems to come up on every issue you can think of.

It’s because most politicians are career politicians straight from uni into politics or the legal profession, a lot of politicians are lawyers or barristers like Starmer is, when the U.K. industrial base disappeared courtesy of Thathcher so did people with a working class background who used to have a proper job before going into politics.

I am with Octopus and my fixed term ends 23-7-23 and they inform me my month DD will increase to £101 from £52.
I paid nothing when we were getting the £67/month and built up a small credit.

Well after Rishis predictions of energy bills coming down 20% from june to july.
Me leccy has come down a massive 4p a unit.
About 80p a week.
And now hes saying no tax cuts after a short while ago income tax would be cut from 20 to 18p in April to win the next general election.
Mr U turn.
Welcome the Reform Party.

Obviously you don’t know much about Reform Party, what’s in their manifesto, the old Brexit Party, they are a far right wing party and would certainly have no interest in the working class.

they might not have but can see as many pissed off old school labour voters putting their cross aganst their candidate as right wing tories will do. re named brexit party as you said and who voted for brexit to happen. certainly not the middle class university educated guardian brigade.

Got notified this week of slight reductions on unit price for both Gas & Leccy but the daily charges remain the same.

Leccy is 50.31p equivalent to nearly £200 per year
Gas is 29.11p at over £100 per year

They make profits on the unit price but to continue to steal an extra £300 per year is criminal.

The Labour and Conservatives electorate who voted for them before will either vote for The Green Party or the Lib Dems, who wants to vote for a party when Brexit has been a failure for many reasons, just ask the small businesses who export to the EU. Both the Conservative and the Labour Party won’t say about closer cooperation with the EU as it will be a vote loser for them in fact both would favour rejoining the EU I think.

many real died in the wool brexiteers are still more than a little annoyed that the government have not implemented brexit fully due to the majority of politicians from all sides not wanting it. the biggest mistake farrage has ever made was pushing for it when he must have known if he was successful there was never the will to give him the one he wanted. you are right about rejoining being a vote loser in the same way it would if a party said they,d put 5 p on income tax. workers for some reason hate paying that but are quite happy paying all the vat and indirect taxation we all pay.

The government must be raking a fortune on VAT on energy bills and when fuel prices went through the roof.

Start paying tax from 20k instead of 12.5k.
Thats a winner for me.

How you going to make up the shortfall, raise the tax for high earners ?
You raise taxes and companies stop investing in the U.K., the U.K. has lost enough investment companies who have moved to the EU.

State pension should be £30k per annum and income tax should be abolished from the day they are eligible to claim it.

We have one of the lowest State Pensions in Europe, what really annoys me after paying income tax all my life I will continue paying it to I go to my grave. There was even talk of retirees paying NI contributions on their pensions.

problem with pensions is the gap between the ones who get the basic plus a bit of a top up to the saga brigade. bit like the mirror image of the country itself. being a pensioner myself i am quite happy with my lot and expected to cut back from when i worked. i could have easily gone on working for the extras but i,d had enough of clock watching and alarms going off on dark winter mornings. do not expect the same money just because i worked all my life than some poor sod doing their best with a family on the maximum living wage thats inforce in many areas.

its might be but again it will go up again shortly and its nothing to do with energy companies profits. sunak is going to put the green levy back on to screw us even more. something else we never voted for or for that matter will never get the chance to as there is no alternative on this issue.

I will say it again both the Conservatives and Labour touting green energy as they are worried thethe tree huggers will secure a few votes in the next GE.