The Socialist 31 October 2012 Solidarity with Ford workers - Defend every job  Solidarity with Ford workers - Defend every job Prepare for a 24-hour general strike Savile case: How bullies and predators thrived Tory cuts will increase child poverty Gas prices - All companies join price hike Scores of trains cancelled in west midlands Spain: Autumn heats up as general strike approaches South African miners: the struggle continues Socialist MEP obstructed by Kazakh authorities Housing: How the market has failed Birmingham cuts: council workers must lead a fightback Birmingham council threatens 1,000 jobs ... national Unison leadership responds meekly Teachers at Stratford Academy strike against scandalous pay cuts Bromley council: Drop your plans or face a strike! Glasgow Unison's fighting strategy Stop cuts at Dewsbury hospital South London NHS debt funds Tories! EDL fails in second attempt to rally in Waltham Forest Rotherham workers and youth unite against the National Front University of East London - scrap the unfair attendance policy! Student demonstration must be just the beginning |
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Home | The Socialist 31 October 2012 | Join the Socialist Party Gas prices - All companies join price hikeAlec PriceFollowing the price hikes by four of the 'big six' energy companies, the French-owned EDF Energy kept tight lipped on whether it would follow suit. It told the Financial Times EDF 'keep[s] its prices under constant review'. Now it has announced an 11% price hike, effective from 7 December - the biggest of all! As the table below indicates the 'big Six' companies are all hiking up prices by roughly the same amount and at roughly the same time. The only exception is E.ON which has a price freeze for this year but may well announce price rises from January 2013. Martin Lewis, of moneysavingexpert.com, tried to place a £1,000 bet that E.ON's price will announce or raise prices in January - the bet was refused! This is price-fixing for maximum profit. The fact that many people will be weighing up whether to buy food or put the heating on is, at best, a secondary concern for these greedy companies. If we were to bring these companies back under public ownership, and run them to meet the needs of society as part of a wider socialist economy, then we could fix a price for gas and electricity that would allow people to heat their homes and provide food for their family as a bare minimum. The following figures show the average hike (G=Gas E=Electricity) for each energy providerBritish Gas, G: +6% E: +6%, from 16 NovemberE.ON, Price freeze for 2012EDF, G: +10.8% E: +10.8%, from 7 DecembernPOWER, E: +8.8% G: +9.1%, from 26 NovemberScottish Power, G: +7% E: +7%, from 3 DecemberSSE, G: +9% E: +9%, from 15 OctoberOur Marie Antoinette awardOnce these winter price rises go through, the average household energy bill will have rocketed up by £812 since 2004. Then the annual cost was £522 - now on average each household will be paying a record high of £1,334 a year by the end of 2012. The Independent newspaper asked the big six companies: 'Why couldn't the 5% profits claimed by these companies be reduced to 3%?' One energy industry fat cat dismissed this, saying: "That would only cut average bills by around £30. What's the point?" As the Independent commented, £30 is a lot of money when you have none to spare. This fat cat looks favourite to win this year's Marie Antoinette 'let them eat cake' award. The 2008 winner was Jake Ulrich of energy giant Centrica who told people facing huge increases in bills that they should wear two sweaters to keep warm! These companies have plenty of money without handing us these inflation-busting price hikes. They should never have been privatised in the first place - they should be renationalised and the energy industries run under democratic workers' control and management not by greedy fat-cat capitalists. In this issue
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