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THE UK GOVERNMENT has announced an energy price cap for homes in Northern Ireland.
UK Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg said the energy support scheme would offer households in Northern Ireland the same level of gas and electricity bill support as an equivalent scheme in Britain.
The announcement follows the launch of the Energy Price Guarantee for households in the rest of the UK, under which a typical household will pay on average £2,500 (€2,860) a year on their energy bill for the next two years from October 1.
The scheme limits the price suppliers can charge customers for units of gas and electricity.
The UK Government said the scheme will work through electricity and gas bills.
Energy suppliers will reduce bills by a unit price reduction of up to 17p/kWh for electricity and 4.2p/kWh for gas.
The UK Government said there is no need for householders to take any action to receive this support.
It said the scheme will take effect from November, but the Government said it will ensure households receive support so they will see the same benefit overall as those households in Britain by backdating support for October bills through bills from November.
Households in Northern Ireland will also receive a £400 (€457) discount on bills through the Northern Ireland Energy Bills Support Scheme.
The UK Government has also announced plans to introduce a cap on wholesale energy bills for businesses in the rest of the UK, and said a parallel scheme will be established in Northern Ireland.
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My electric in Aus is 21c a kWh and standing charge is 9c. Paying around $67 a month for electricity. Gas is a bit more but still nothing like what europe is going through. Those prices listed are mental. Someone take Putin out please.
@Brax Braxton: we thank for that update on how life is good aus …. that’s really helpful here in Ireland….
@Brax Braxton: you haven’t got batch loaf bread and king crisp tho lol
@Dave Ryan: dont you mean tayto….
@Dave Ryan: And their Guinness is shyte.
@Benny McHale: I heard the place is full of Australians too!
@Brian Martin: sorry i grew up in Dublin so it was always king chrisps in our house…. except at Christmas when ya got the Christmas box of tayto because it was cheaper lol
Can we please stop talking about Price Caps? It’ll be the same Blank Cheque mistake we made with bailing out the Banks: there is literally no way to know what the final cost to the state will be and there is no Windfall Tax that can fully cover such a scheme. (We are still paying the ‘temporary’ USC for the Financial Crisis)
@Pip: No! A price cap could be wholly subsidised by a windfall tax on the massive profits currently being made by the energy producers. A price cap could also be coupled with a rationing system so that more affluent households are not encouraged to use more energy and guard against shortages and increased emissions.
@Sean Byrne: what data do you have to say a windfall tax will cover price caps here if we introduced them? I bet you’ve none.
Also, rationing power: explain a system or process that exists on our grid that can allow for the throttling of power / fuel at a household level. There is none.
I appreciate that this cost of living craic is an emotive topic, but we have to work within the constraints of reality in order to voice our disdain and in offering realistic solutions.
@Paolo Fandango: In Ireland, the five largest energy companies, IN ONE YEAR, increased their profits by €280 million. Those increases could be taxed at 100%.
It would not be necessary to phyically throttle the grids to ration power or gas. A rationing system could give an allowance for energy at a price capped rate for a certain amount of energy per household. Anything above that could be charged at the market rate. The level of that allowance could be determined by the income from the windfall tax.
Legislation for price controls is nothing new. The Free State brought in a Control of Prices Act in 1937.
@Sean Byrne: how do we define an affluent household?
What if 5 people move back home with their family, more power will be used then.
What if it’s a big house with two folks who earn a modest wage?
Respectfully, There’s too many holes in your plot here Sean.
Also. If you explore the maths of windfall taxes, it simply cannot wholely cover increases, unless all these profits have come and unit prices of raw energy have not increased to energy companies. So the windfall tax cannot possibly cover all increases we pay.
@Sean Byrne: I’m all for the windfall taxes but we must base our solutions and / or demands in reality.
@Paolo Fandango: You could define an affluent household the same way it is currently determined whether or not a household can get a 100% cost of a deep retrofit.
This would not be necessary where an allowance is given to every household at a price capped rate unlike the Tories domestic price cap which is capping all domestic energy use even for mansion occupiers. This would have a real possibility of leading to energy shortages here if not being climate unfriendly and deeply unfair.
I’m not saying it should cover all increases as energy companies can still increase prices outside of the allowance. So, to be clear, those who use copious amounts of power with no justification may have to pay significant increases.
@Sean Byrne: you cannot define it the same way as allowances for retrofits.
We’re talking about optional luxuries of retrofitting versus the supply of a vital service.
@Paolo Fandango: I hear you. Might c u at the Garden of Remembrance 2.30pm on Saturday. Have a nice day.
@Sean Byrne: Matt Carthy (Sinn Fein saviour) just said on the radio that their “costed” price cap comes in at 1.3 billion. A 100% tax on 280 million even with junior cert maths won’t cover it. Matt also said that when the worker can’t pay for it the state needs to pay for it, news flash Matt, the worker gives the state the money to pay for this stuff.
@Sean Byrne: best of luck on Saturday Sean.
have your say