| More energy company mega profits... on 08:17 - Feb 16 with 1154 views | BanksterDebtSlave |
Ftse setting new records.....who knew that getting fleeced could be so good for us. |  |
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| More energy company mega profits... on 08:17 - Feb 16 with 1155 views | Steve_M |
It isn't all, or even mostly, from the retail business but that gets beyond the point at the moment. By having the legacy British Gas domestic accounts, Centrica always had a dominant position in the domestic UK market that Ofgem, inexplicably given it's love of textbook competition, seemed happy with.
It's also worth noting at this point that Centrica is refusing to spend money on the Rough gas storage facility and expects the government to do that for it. The government meanwhile think energy prices are coming down and isn't interested either. |  |
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| More energy company mega profits... on 08:19 - Feb 16 with 1144 views | StokieBlue |
There is no excuse for it, they could have made exactly the same profits as previous years by keeping the price at whatever level was required to do that but instead they have allowed the price to float far above that in the interests of profitability.
Seems pretty clear that energy infrastructure should be nationalised and run at a level whereby profits are wholly invested in improving said infrastructure. Has to be done and argued for sensibility otherwise it will just be attacked in the usual way.
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| More energy company mega profits... on 08:22 - Feb 16 with 1131 views | Herbivore |
The transfer of wealth from regular working people and small businesses into the hands of these giant (mainly fossil fuel based) energy companies is staggering. The public discourse on it is so wilfully dishonest as well. We are told that prices have gone up so high because of the war in Ukraine, but the bit they leave out - the really important bit - is that prices have gone up because the increased demand created by the war (and coming out of Covid) enables companies to charge extortionate prices. There is negligible increase in costs for these companies, the price increases are all going into excess profits. And we are sold the lie that this is all because of external events and perfectly normal. The system is beyond broken at this point. |  |
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| More energy company mega profits... on 08:22 - Feb 16 with 1131 views | Deano69 |
At least he wore a mask |  |
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| More energy company mega profits... on 08:38 - Feb 16 with 1091 views | Dubtractor |
| More energy company mega profits... on 08:17 - Feb 16 by Steve_M |
It isn't all, or even mostly, from the retail business but that gets beyond the point at the moment. By having the legacy British Gas domestic accounts, Centrica always had a dominant position in the domestic UK market that Ofgem, inexplicably given it's love of textbook competition, seemed happy with.
It's also worth noting at this point that Centrica is refusing to spend money on the Rough gas storage facility and expects the government to do that for it. The government meanwhile think energy prices are coming down and isn't interested either. |
Appreciate that things are rarely completely straightforward, but the optics of this are outstandingly bad. Again. |  |
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| More energy company mega profits... on 08:48 - Feb 16 with 1041 views | PrideOfTheEast |
I had always assumed British Gas were good plumbers. I had a large job in my new house (new boiler in a different location, complete repipe, fit new radiators etc) - they were genuinely awful. Badly fitted, leaks in multiple places as a result. 3 people on site for 2 weeks. Paid them nothing for what was a 10k ish job. |  | | |
| More energy company mega profits... on 09:34 - Feb 16 with 956 views | TractorWood |
| More energy company mega profits... on 08:17 - Feb 16 by BanksterDebtSlave |
Ftse setting new records.....who knew that getting fleeced could be so good for us. |
US economy looking resilient. String of more upbeat data is pushing on the usual January rise. There is still value out there imo. Vodafone as Liberty took 5% on a punt it's enormously undervalued and has a bevy of consolidation opportunity. Barclays has huge upside on paper after their negligence gaff and its weaker than expected results have gone under the windfall tax radar.
Lloyd's release next week. Market expects big results there on mortgage bonus. |  |
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| More energy company mega profits... on 09:35 - Feb 16 with 958 views | Guthrum |
| More energy company mega profits... on 08:22 - Feb 16 by Herbivore |
The transfer of wealth from regular working people and small businesses into the hands of these giant (mainly fossil fuel based) energy companies is staggering. The public discourse on it is so wilfully dishonest as well. We are told that prices have gone up so high because of the war in Ukraine, but the bit they leave out - the really important bit - is that prices have gone up because the increased demand created by the war (and coming out of Covid) enables companies to charge extortionate prices. There is negligible increase in costs for these companies, the price increases are all going into excess profits. And we are sold the lie that this is all because of external events and perfectly normal. The system is beyond broken at this point. |
Talking of broken systems, there is an interesting sideline on this, with regard to where a chunk of the money goes afterwards - pension funds.
We have an ageing population who are living a lot longer after retirement. After nearly 20 years of businesses being obliged to offer private pension schemes, many people have them (often bits and pieces scattered across different workplaces). Many pension funds took big hits during the dot-com crash and in 2008.
A lot of investment income has to come from somewhere to cover those liabilities, at a time when interest rates have (until recently) been very low. There is thus an insatiable hunger for profits and share price growth from powerful investors.
The altenative is the responsibility being thrown back upon the state, which will have to be paid for with taxes. Tax increases are the one thing political parties are most terrified of, threatening prospects of electoral success and stoking back-bench rebellion. |  |
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| More energy company mega profits... on 09:35 - Feb 16 with 958 views | SuperKieranMcKenna |
| More energy company mega profits... on 08:22 - Feb 16 by Herbivore |
The transfer of wealth from regular working people and small businesses into the hands of these giant (mainly fossil fuel based) energy companies is staggering. The public discourse on it is so wilfully dishonest as well. We are told that prices have gone up so high because of the war in Ukraine, but the bit they leave out - the really important bit - is that prices have gone up because the increased demand created by the war (and coming out of Covid) enables companies to charge extortionate prices. There is negligible increase in costs for these companies, the price increases are all going into excess profits. And we are sold the lie that this is all because of external events and perfectly normal. The system is beyond broken at this point. |
It’s not a negligible increase - for a long time the wholesale natural gas price was quadruple the pre pandemic price. This represents over 50pc of your bill. But the point is they could have easily reduced their margin selling it to consumer (and worth noting it’s not just us that it’s affecting - it’s also crippling businesses). As you rightly say demand has increased as (Europe in particular) has increased procurement in order to bolster their reserves. They could have easily made more money on this additional demand AND decreased margins.
However, I do maintain that it’s the E&P companies that we need to tackle. These are the ones who are really ripping us off. The utility companies typically have a 2pc profit margin on your end bill so it seems little gain for £billions of outlay. | | | |
| More energy company mega profits... on 09:39 - Feb 16 with 940 views | Herbivore |
| More energy company mega profits... on 09:35 - Feb 16 by SuperKieranMcKenna |
It’s not a negligible increase - for a long time the wholesale natural gas price was quadruple the pre pandemic price. This represents over 50pc of your bill. But the point is they could have easily reduced their margin selling it to consumer (and worth noting it’s not just us that it’s affecting - it’s also crippling businesses). As you rightly say demand has increased as (Europe in particular) has increased procurement in order to bolster their reserves. They could have easily made more money on this additional demand AND decreased margins.
However, I do maintain that it’s the E&P companies that we need to tackle. These are the ones who are really ripping us off. The utility companies typically have a 2pc profit margin on your end bill so it seems little gain for £billions of outlay. |
For clarity, I am referring to those supplying wholesale (I believe Centrica have a hand in on that front) rather than those retailing. I thought that was clear from the context but perhaps not. That said, the retail arm still made a pretty healthy profit last year. [Post edited 16 Feb 2023 9:50]
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| More energy company mega profits... on 18:38 - Feb 16 with 676 views | factual_blue |
| More energy company mega profits... on 08:48 - Feb 16 by PrideOfTheEast |
I had always assumed British Gas were good plumbers. I had a large job in my new house (new boiler in a different location, complete repipe, fit new radiators etc) - they were genuinely awful. Badly fitted, leaks in multiple places as a result. 3 people on site for 2 weeks. Paid them nothing for what was a 10k ish job. |
When we went over to gas about 30 years ago (when the village was connected up) we had a new boiler installed by British Gas. It never seemed to work very well, and a couple of plumbers/heating engineers couldn't work out was wrong.
A third engineer had a good look, announced it was the 'worst plumbing he'd ever seen' and was able to sort it out.
He said BG sub all the work out, and standards are pretty hit and miss. He pointed out 'what sort of effing useless plumber has to rely on BG to get work.
We've never, ever gone anywhere near BG since.
We also complained about a supply issue. We of course weren't getting anywhere and e-mailed the CEO. That then got sorted, but it was clear the CEO's office has a team probably as big as the ordinary complaints team.
If you see Sid, tell him. |  |
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| More energy company mega profits... on 19:11 - Feb 16 with 651 views | Swansea_Blue |
| More energy company mega profits... on 09:35 - Feb 16 by Guthrum |
Talking of broken systems, there is an interesting sideline on this, with regard to where a chunk of the money goes afterwards - pension funds.
We have an ageing population who are living a lot longer after retirement. After nearly 20 years of businesses being obliged to offer private pension schemes, many people have them (often bits and pieces scattered across different workplaces). Many pension funds took big hits during the dot-com crash and in 2008.
A lot of investment income has to come from somewhere to cover those liabilities, at a time when interest rates have (until recently) been very low. There is thus an insatiable hunger for profits and share price growth from powerful investors.
The altenative is the responsibility being thrown back upon the state, which will have to be paid for with taxes. Tax increases are the one thing political parties are most terrified of, threatening prospects of electoral success and stoking back-bench rebellion. |
Yeah, I was looking at this with two hats on - one raving at the injustice and inequality and the other thinking ooh my investments (pension) will be going well. I'm surprised that these seemingly obscene profits aren't more regularly justified by their impact on pensions and other fund-linked investments. It's not going to be relevant to everyone but an awful lot of people do need the markets to be doing well. I'd imagine it would be a relatively easy sell and soften the optics around the profits. |  |
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| More energy company mega profits... on 19:23 - Feb 16 with 640 views | Herbivore |
| More energy company mega profits... on 19:11 - Feb 16 by Swansea_Blue |
Yeah, I was looking at this with two hats on - one raving at the injustice and inequality and the other thinking ooh my investments (pension) will be going well. I'm surprised that these seemingly obscene profits aren't more regularly justified by their impact on pensions and other fund-linked investments. It's not going to be relevant to everyone but an awful lot of people do need the markets to be doing well. I'd imagine it would be a relatively easy sell and soften the optics around the profits. |
Of course if the vast sums in the fossil fuel industry were divested into green industry and pension funds likewise shifted over to invest in green industries then there wouldn't really a problem. We can't keep killing the planet and allowing regular folk to be exploited on the basis that it helps pension funds. | |
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| More energy company mega profits... on 20:03 - Feb 16 with 608 views | BanksterDebtSlave |
| More energy company mega profits... on 09:34 - Feb 16 by TractorWood |
US economy looking resilient. String of more upbeat data is pushing on the usual January rise. There is still value out there imo. Vodafone as Liberty took 5% on a punt it's enormously undervalued and has a bevy of consolidation opportunity. Barclays has huge upside on paper after their negligence gaff and its weaker than expected results have gone under the windfall tax radar.
Lloyd's release next week. Market expects big results there on mortgage bonus. |
Are you a bot? | |
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| More energy company mega profits... on 20:04 - Feb 16 with 604 views | BanksterDebtSlave |
| More energy company mega profits... on 08:22 - Feb 16 by Herbivore |
The transfer of wealth from regular working people and small businesses into the hands of these giant (mainly fossil fuel based) energy companies is staggering. The public discourse on it is so wilfully dishonest as well. We are told that prices have gone up so high because of the war in Ukraine, but the bit they leave out - the really important bit - is that prices have gone up because the increased demand created by the war (and coming out of Covid) enables companies to charge extortionate prices. There is negligible increase in costs for these companies, the price increases are all going into excess profits. And we are sold the lie that this is all because of external events and perfectly normal. The system is beyond broken at this point. |
I said that in a concise form in the first comment....can I have my uppies back please? | |
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| More energy company mega profits... on 20:09 - Feb 16 with 595 views | BanksterDebtSlave |
| More energy company mega profits... on 19:11 - Feb 16 by Swansea_Blue |
Yeah, I was looking at this with two hats on - one raving at the injustice and inequality and the other thinking ooh my investments (pension) will be going well. I'm surprised that these seemingly obscene profits aren't more regularly justified by their impact on pensions and other fund-linked investments. It's not going to be relevant to everyone but an awful lot of people do need the markets to be doing well. I'd imagine it would be a relatively easy sell and soften the optics around the profits. |
It's almost like you are the prisoner and the jailer at the same time....oh and don't forget the ISAs.....#conflicted [Post edited 16 Feb 2023 20:10]
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| More energy company mega profits... on 20:34 - Feb 16 with 574 views | Swansea_Blue |
| More energy company mega profits... on 19:23 - Feb 16 by Herbivore |
Of course if the vast sums in the fossil fuel industry were divested into green industry and pension funds likewise shifted over to invest in green industries then there wouldn't really a problem. We can't keep killing the planet and allowing regular folk to be exploited on the basis that it helps pension funds. |
Oh, agreed for sure. I was just thinking they could make that argument to gain a bit more support. It would be much better if they took moving across to renewables more seriously. I think I saw somewhere recently a report that they’re spending even less now on renewables - depressing stuff. | |
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| More energy company mega profits... on 20:42 - Feb 16 with 564 views | Herbivore |
| More energy company mega profits... on 20:34 - Feb 16 by Swansea_Blue |
Oh, agreed for sure. I was just thinking they could make that argument to gain a bit more support. It would be much better if they took moving across to renewables more seriously. I think I saw somewhere recently a report that they’re spending even less now on renewables - depressing stuff. |
Why spend on renewables when they're absolutely coining it from fossil fuels? I always think expecting the source of the problem to also be the solution to the problem is foolhardy, if not delusional. | |
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