Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
Energy firms to 'guarantee best deal' on tariffs.
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Energy companies will be required to let customers know what their best deal is in a move which ministers say could save households up to £100 a year.
Firms will be obliged to tell people about the most suitable tariff for them and to offer it if they request it. Announcing the move, Deputy PM Nick Clegg said seven out of 10 people have the wrong deal and pay too much.
We all know about this for sure. There are more than 150 variations on the tariffs we are required to pay. It is a financial minefield of the top order. Bewildering and bamboozling all at one go. Many feel this price structure is like this on purpose to confuse customers, so they dont know where the deals are, if indeed there are any deals.
And now a press release just in from Laura Sandys MP.....
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Government Forces Energy Companies to Offer Customers Best Tariffs
Laura Sandys MP, who worked for the Consumers Association, is a member of the Energy and Climate Change Committee and is the Conservative Which? Ambassador for the Big Switch campaign said:
"Today we are seeing some of the fruits of the Prime Minister's Summit and the Government's determination to get energy companies to play fair with the consumer. Forcing the energy companies to offer consumers the best possible tariff every year is positive and marks a culture change for the sector that for too long left customers in the dark.
"We are moving towards a more flexible and transparent market - with new pricing structures to be announced by OFGEM and greater clarity of where profits are made. Through collective switching and consumer activism, we can start to make some real headway in creating an open and competitive market. Customers need to know what they are paying for and how they could save money."
-ENDS-
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
Just to add another bit on a more personal level...I wouldnt have the faintest idea as to how to get the best deal, and never have. Nor can I manage it with others like the phone people either. Look at the BT Bill for example.. bewilidering completely. Have you got the best structure for you in place, have you got the right friends and family, have you got any friends and family?
The energy companies are the same..its a dark zone, so maybe all this will help. Another statistic I heard on the radio this morning...75% of people never bother to switch consumer...Im right in there in that 75%. The reason is that it is all too difficult.
Today this could be a helpful step in the right direction.
Guest 725- Registered: 7 Oct 2011
- Posts: 1,418
Worse than useless I'm afraid. Tinkering around the edges to give the impression that the government are "on our side".
Hopeless.
"Laura Sandys MP, who worked for the Consumers Association, is a member of the Energy and Climate Change Committee and is the Conservative Which? Ambassador for the Big Switch campaign.........."
Just about sums it up.
Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
Yes indeed PhilipP. Plenty of time and opportunity to screw the customer and sound wonderful in the process.
Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i doubt if ms sandys is on the green wing of the blues, as a new member she would have been put on a committee and asked to get on with it.
importantly she is keeping east kent informed on what is happening at westminster.
i must agree with being cynical about the outcome we have no real way of knowing if we are on the best deal.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
She is no daft green wet so Howard is right.
As for whether this will help, we shall see. Thankfully people do have choice these days and are not simply subject to what some giant state monopoly wants to charge.
Guest 725- Registered: 7 Oct 2011
- Posts: 1,418
Sorry to disappoint you Howard but this line from a Telegraph profile of Ms. Sandys reads:
"Laura regularly comments in the media on energy and climate change issues and actively campaigns for the greening of the East Kent economy".
If you need further proof of her extreme green credentials you can do no better than visiting her own website:
http://telllaura.org.uk/home.php?page_id=32
Barry is blaming the libdems for the environmental mentalness in the government when it's none other than he (David Cameron) and his lobby fodder who are behind their grand vision.
Guest 667- Registered: 6 Apr 2008
- Posts: 919
It will only be any good if you can understand the information given and you can then compare it with other companies, so I will reserve judgment until I see what information is given.
Pity they did not put pressure on them reducing their prices quickly when their purchase price drops and push for better competition between the companies, which is why privatisation was first brought in. Instead of when one puts it up they all follow.
Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
barry,i like a wet green.

Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Ahhh Philip - to you green is simply a dirty word and while I agree that the so called man-made global warming issue is utter rubbish that does not mean all 'green' issues are. Laura Sandys is not some green fundamentalist like your mate Huhne but much more sensible.
You and Huhne are opposite sides of the same coin.
Guest 725- Registered: 7 Oct 2011
- Posts: 1,418
Barry re-read my post number 7 and take a look at her own website. How you can possibly suggest is not some green fundamentalist is beyond me.
Or do you only see what you want to see and disregard the facts?
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Compared to you anyone is a green fundamentalist Philip.
Guest 640- Registered: 21 Apr 2007
- Posts: 7,819
Ive seen another bit about this on the news and it seems that your energy company is now obliged to write to you and offer you the best tariff for your needs. This is more or less the same as mentioned above but with the added notion that unsolicited they will write to you later in the year, offering you a way to save money.
It does seem a tad too good to be true, as these companies are offering you the option of reducing their own annual profit. However if you gloss over that bit, and maybe put it down to the Government forcing the issue, it certainly could work in the consumers favour. Touch wood. Energy bills are scandalously high so saving money for the average citizen will be welcomed.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
a minor sop i suspect, i just cottoned that ms sandys is the daugher of the late sunken glands, quite a major political figure in his time.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Related to Churchill.
Guest 725- Registered: 7 Oct 2011
- Posts: 1,418
From her website:
"But the issue of climate change and the impacts that it will have, can be looked at in three ways - denial that it is happening - pretty dangerous in my view; the start of a new form of green Puritanism - retribution for what we have done to the world's environment".
also:
"But let's just look at what is predicted to happen across East Kent - a great example actually of the impacts of climate change. Well something that some in Thanet would welcome - we could become an island again - by 2050 some predictions show that you would have had to get here by boat or bridge not via the A299. And Sandwich would be flooded regularly if we were not putting in flood defences".
and:
"Now you might say what is this wacky Conservative MP talking about the environment as if she was a cheer leader for the Green Party...."
She took the words right out of my mouth.
It's not as if I'm alone in thinking this green stuff has gone too far with news that Barry's heroes are set to jump aboard the UKIP ship, them being:
Mark Pritchard,
Bill Cash,
Nadine Dorries,
George Eustice,
Douglas Carswell,
Jacob Rees-Mogg.
I am still baffled about why you feel such a strong urge to avoid looking at things that might be difficult or dangerous. Discussing "green" issues neither means you are a, eco-nut or about to be sectioned. It is a discussion about how best to manage the resources we have and reduce the damage we might cause to the only planet we have.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
one day we will possibly discover whether climate change is man made, the vast majority of emissions come from china, india and the united states.
soon countries like brazil, argentina and russia will step up to the plate.
it just leaves western europe to destroy its competitiveness with faintly ludicrous green policies.
Guest 725- Registered: 7 Oct 2011
- Posts: 1,418
I entirely agree with you Howard.
The title of this thread concerns energy deals. Now there is something of the Marquis de Sade about all this.
So on one hand the fools who believe in the climate change myth insist that they pass laws which impoverish us all by increasing the price of energy we pay in order that Mother earth might be spared an untimely death due to our use of fossil fuels.
Then the fools, having raised the price of energy because of measures brought in to stop us all producing more of a trace gas tell us that they have plans to order the energy companies to tell us once a year that we might be paying too much and it might be sensible to change energy suppliers.
This is arrant, ludicrous, pathetic, jumbled thinking which only serves to highlight how utterly stupid our political leaders are.
I know, I know Mother earth is weeping because one of her flock somehow thinks that there are those who are gullible enough to believe the crap they are spoon-fed and are quite willing to pay extra in order to comply with these fatuous measures.
It is utterly bizarre. What is even more bizarre is Barry's thinking on this where he tells us all that climate change is nonsense and then thinks the extreme green position taken by one our local Tory representatives makes sense. He then infers that I am the extremist in all this.
Gullible and well meaning people like Laura Sandys think that she is helping the planet and will help the economy of East Kent.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Her actions will merely, as Howard has pointed out, help to destroy the economy of the UK.
And this from a so called Conservative member of Parliament.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i think you are being a bit unfair on ms sandys philip, the way i am reading it she is trying to exploit the green agenda for the benefit of her constituents.
pragmatism in my view as all the main parties are committed to it so the best thing for a good constituency m.p to do is to find a benefit for local people.