I have no problem with paying my share towards the move to a low-carbon economy. Paying for fat cats to cream off excessive profits is a different matter though!
Craig Sevant, Altrincham, Cheshire
The average annual bill for gas and electricity in the UK, something most would consider to be a basic commodity, is £1,500. In comparison, the average mobile phone bill, which to many is merely an entertainment device, is £440. People should consider whether their utility bill really is so expensive compared to other things they spend their money on.
R Campbell, Gloucestershire
No. We shouldn’t just accept it. Increasing prices to consumers, increasing variety of ‘incentives’ to utilities, no doubt increasing profits to shareholders – but little or no investment in the transmission system or the baseload capacity. This has all the hallmarks of a smokescreen; and we should certainly challenge it!
David Schaffert, Tewkesbury
We are dependent on foreign imports of energy at prices out of our control. The sooner fracking starts the better so we can become self-sufficient.
Roger Bailey, Crewe
Price increases are inevitable. As a society we need to embrace them, and do something to reduce our consumption. Schemes like those that help people on benefits to insulate their homes need to be continued or extended, as well as investment in renewables and energy-efficiency measures.
Neil Dinmore, Derby
Why have foreign companies bought the UK’s utility businesses? To make money of course. Let’s cut out the nonsense of blaming extortionate price rises on whatever is fashionable at the moment – this year it’s the environment – and let’s have a regulator with some guts to provide us with honest analysis of why energy prices are the cost that they are.
Geoff Miles, Poole, Dorset
I think we need to bite the bullet and invest in a long-term nuclear programme. The renewables subsidy is hiking prices and we are covering the landscape in inefficient windmills.
John McFarlane, Uddingston, Glasgow
We are a windy country with minimal power from wind. We are a coastal country with minimal power from waves. We were one of the world’s early nuclear powers, and now we have rapidly declining nuclear electricity. We have one of Europe’s largest oil and gas fields, but massive petrol and gas prices. We’ve been blessed with more energy sources than just about any country on earth! Inevitable higher energy costs? Appalling foresight and management for 70 years, more like.
Duncan Saunders, Derby
The simple answer is yes. Engineers already know that you don’t get something for nothing. I just wonder if the issue is more around price volatility. In which case, would a stable generating base using the nuclear option provide a solution?
Mike Parton, Birmingham
It’s inevitable considering the politics. The tax on carbon has totally failed. Coal is currently the only commercially viable solution, with stations being reinstated and new ones being built in Germany. To which low-carbon economy do you refer?
Gary Lock, Dorking, Surrey
The energy companies complain about rising costs to produce, and the associated taxes, but this still leaves them with enormous profits to pay out to the shareholders. Why not absorb the costs and keep the customers happy, and not all follow suit like sheep?
Scott Cameron, Derby
Some years ago, there was a cost breakdown for petrol that showed how much we paid per litre was made up of wholesale, refining, taxation, and retail costs. How about the same for our gas and electric? Perhaps we could then make an informed decision on which of the big six to sign up to as there will be greater transparency in these unit costs.
Robert Rourke, Melton Mowbray
Having a satisfactory long-term energy policy for the UK would help. Successive governments have side-stepped the issue. Then we might not have to leave it to the market to provide regulation, as Maggie concluded during privatisation.
Sid McFarland, Cheltenham
What happened to a market economy? Let green energy pay for itself. If it was cost-effective there wouldn’t need to be a subsidy.
Richard Goodfellow, Newcastle upon Tyne
Politicians who have no engineering knowledge are defining our energy policy. That’s the first concern. The second is that the strategic policy changes so often that it’s not really strategic. The third is that these policies are swayed by public opinion, climate change fads, and imminent elections.
Geoff Buck, Newton Abbot
No!
Colin Murray, West Sussex
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