North Wales MS calls for energy companies to be nationalised
Member of the Senedd for North Wales, Carolyn Thomas, has hit out at energy companies for making “obscene” profits and has called for them to be brought under public ownership as fuel bills continue to soar.
Earlier this week the energy regulator warned that customers face a “very challenging winter ahead” due to spiraling bills.
In May, Ofgem said the typical household should expect to see an £800 increase to their bill, up to £2,800, following a £600 increase in April.
This would mean the average bill would have doubled since October 2021, when the typical bill was £1,400.
However, energy experts are now predicting that bills will hit a staggering £3,359 per year from October for the average household, and not fall below that level until at least the end of next year.
Unsustainable
“The sorts of increases we are talking about here are simply unsustainable for many households across Wales – as winter approaches, it is clear that further intervention is required from the government,” Ms Thomas said.
“We’ve seen just last week, Centrica, the owners of British Gas, announcing a 500% increase in quarterly profits – a staggering £1.34bn of profit. Shell also announced record quarterly profits of £9.5bn.”
“Private ownership means that these companies are able to make such staggering profits whilst putting consumers energy bills up by nearly 200% in a year. It is obscene.”
“Under public ownership, instead of stuffing the pockets of a small number of shareholders with billions of pounds of profit, those huge sums of money would be used to significantly reduce the bills of consumers,” she added.
“People are already having to make tough choices between using appliances or buying food and this is only going to get worse as we head into the winter.
“A failure to act will be consigning many people across the country to an incredibly bleak winter which some vulnerable people might not make it through.”
The price cap on energy bills, which regulates what 24 million British households pay, will hit £3,616 from January and rise further to £3,729 from April, it said.
It will begin to fall after that, but only slowly, reaching £3,569 from July before hitting £3,470 for the last three months of 2023.
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This is day light robbery at its very worse.We do need to Nationalise our Energy,why don ‘t Wales go it Alone! .Something needs to be done quickly, to stop these Corporate Vultures,breaking the backs of Peoples and Country
If nationalisation managed to a) deliver an efficient fair priced service, and b) eliminated the influence of financial institutions and c) the culture of greed and excessive rewards among the managerial class, we might be getting somewhere. Unfortunately too many in government these days are also far too drawn to “rewards” and greedy culture so prevalent in big business. Until that changes I fear we would be just swapping one dud for another.
If energy was publicly owned no govt would dare approve the projected astronomical energy price rises as they know it would be electoral suicide.
“In May, Ofgem said the typical household…and not fall below that level until at least the end of next year. ” + ““We’ve seen just last week, Centrica, the owners of British Gas, announcing a 500% increase in quarterly profits – a staggering £1.34bn of profit. Shell also announced record quarterly profits of £9.5bn.” It’s obscene. I’m not saying nationalism is categorically the answer but everything that has led to this position needs to be re-evaluated to sort out medium-long term and people desperately need help now. What’s even worse is that these fossil-fuel dependent businesses making billions of pounds of… Read more »
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Afraid public ownership of energy has been off the agenda at westminster for decades – the only way this can happen is if Wales becomes independent.