Le bollette energetiche del Regno Unito potrebbero essere fissate secondo la “ricchezza”, afferma il regolatore

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Britain’s energy regulator has proposed making changes to energy bills so that households would be charged different rates depending on their wealth or income.

Ofgem is floating the idea of a “progressive approach” to the standing charge portion of the bill, as part of efforts to make sure the costs of the shift to cleaner power are fairly distributed.

“We think now is the right time to review how the transition to a greener and more secure energy system should be paid for by consumers,” it said, as part of a “call for input” on a wide-ranging review of energy system costs launched on Wednesday.

Ofgem’s chief executive Jonathan Brearley raised the prospect of such reforms in April.

“Over the next few years, we do expect variable costs to come down, but the proportion of costs that are fixed will rise, which, if unchecked, could exacerbate inequalities that we see today,” Brearley said at the time.

“We want to at least ask the question — whether or not we can allocate costs more progressively.”

The ideas are at an early stage, with no decisions made and details not yet fleshed out.

The standing charge is currently a daily flat rate on energy bills, used to pay for costs such as investment in the gas and electricity networks.

Critics have long argued it is unfair, as it does not reflect households’ actual electricity use.

The huge investments required in new pylons and cables to move electricity from wind and solar farms is now adding to the impetus for reform.

Ofgem’s review on Wednesday suggests a range of potential reforms, including charges varying depending on ability to pay.

“For example, if a progressive approach was desired, then energy system fixed costs could be allocated and recovered (pre-distribution) based on a proxy for wealth . . . council tax is funded in this way,” it said in the document.

It suggests an “income-based standing charge” and a “wealth-based standing charge”.

This could be combined with other ideas, such as standing charges that vary depending on how much electricity the consumer uses at peak times.

Household energy bills remain a potent political issue for the government despite wholesale energy costs falling since the energy crisis of 2021-22 triggered by global gas supply shortages.

Typical household energy bills remain hundreds of pounds higher than pre-crisis levels, partly due to higher network costs, while household energy debt levels are at record highs.

The Labour government pledged during the election campaign to bring bills down by £300 by 2030, although critics have questioned how it will manage this.

Britain’s price cap on energy bills, which governs typical domestic bills, is currently almost 10 per cent higher than in July last year, when Labour took power.

As well as the investment required in electricity networks, Ofgem is also grappling with changes to the way people use electricity.

More households use solar panels, for example, and more are being encouraged to use time-of-use tariffs exposing them to fluctuations in wholesale prices throughout the day.

Couldn’t the energy companies use some of their profit for this?

How about reducing the wealth of the energy companies making the profits instead. I swear all of our so called regulators in this country are totally fucking useless. Standing charges are already a fucking scam.

I’m all for stuff like speeding & parking fines to be aligned with wealth – so that they aren’t just seen as a cheap thing, and become an actual deterrent.. but our bills? From a private company? And who’s going to supply the data to let them do this??

And who’s going to decide the method for deciding this multiplier? And where’s the start/end points.

Madness. Stop standing charges. Make all charges linked to usage. Done.

– rack up credit card debt
– have negative wealth
– get paid to use electricity 
– profit 

We’ve already got the most expensive energy in the world, how are they thinking of ways to make it worse. Dreadful.

What absolute fucking bollocks is this?

Take the fucking gas hold up out of the equation so that the power companies can actually start paying what a unit of power through renewables is actually worth, rather than the equivalent price if it was generated through gas.

Then ditch the fucking standing charge so people aren’t paying £40 a month just for the fact they’re connected to the electric grid.

>Over the next few years, we do expect variable costs to come down, but the proportion of costs that are fixed will rise, which, if unchecked, could exacerbate inequalities that we see today,” Brearley said at the time

But renewables are cheaper! Energy efficiency!

It’s almost like they know renewables are going to massively increase everyone’s bills so they’re looking at ways of masking it

You could ‘means test’ everything if you wanted, just imagine. If all payment was by card readers, since the government have given themselves the right to access your bank account, they could set the VAT rate at, say, 5% for the poor, and 98% for the ‘rich’. That way they could empty the bank accounts of the wealthy quite quickly. Only thing is, it won’t stop those bastards leaving and living elsewhere where they are not hated so much. We’d be better off voting for Corbyn and accepting that we’ll all be poor once he nationalises everything. BTW, there are a number of undisputed outcomes to the imposition of true socialism. Once it’s imposed, there can be no alternative or turning back, and the only democracy left to the ‘people’ is voting for the membership of the central committee. Secondly, the leadership always turns into the authoritarian dictatorship, and once the Central Committee gets its feet under the table, nothing removes them and they, their families and their cohort of hangers-on remains in power and becomes a special class with significant advantages over the proles. Always.

This can absolutely fuck the fuck off.

Make sacrifices all your life to save for old age? Have to pay it all in care home fees.

Do the “right thing” and save money and manage to get a decent paying job? Pay more for your energy.

Want to leave some things to others after you die? We’ll tax that too thank you.

Gov needs to stop punishing people for doing the right thing.

How would they be getting this information. Would HMRC be sharing a bunch of tax information with energy suppliers?
Everybody has to give their income info to probate companies now?

Private sector companies should not have access to people’s financial information regarding income and wealth. This problem has been caused by govts insisting that energy providers roll out green initiatives and add it to the fixed cost. Also the cost of failed energy suppliers is added into the fixed cost. Ordinary consumers shouldn’t be paying for these costs. We have an unfair system and they appear to be wanting to make it worse.

Hi Siri, why does the UK have the longest tax code in the world?

Yes that’s nice but your no1 priority is unlocking from gas