UK Politics
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Help for mortgages would defeat a large part of the mechanism being used to deal with inflation. If the market expected there to be a realistic chance of this happening then interest rate expectations would go up even more and mortgage costs go up even more. Gove was an idiot to suggest they were looking at it. Or he didn’t particularly care beyond his own interests and popularity.
Except the mechanism for controlling current inflation is badly placed. The reason we have inflation so high in the UK is down to supply issues and energy bills. Economists have been shouting this for over a year now. Increasing interest rates is not going to solve that. The government knows this. They are doing nothing to alleviate the issue. Energy firms are still evading any windfall levies, and our port are about to becomes more constricted when they introduce actual border checks at the end of Q3.
Not really. Energy prices are going down and are currently deflationary and supply issues are largely resolved. The UKs inflation situation is different to other countries that faced these same challenges so there is more going on that just these issues.
O aye, your bill has gone down recently? Mine went up £80 last month.
The wholesale price came down months ago. We have yet to benefit from that. Maybe when OFGEM is not controlled by a party that takes donations from energy associated companies, just maybe.
You clearly have no idea how OFGEM works. The cap has come down, but the government is subsiding it less than they were before. It will come down further in October. It’s a pretty transparent set equation on how to work out what the cap will be. OFGEM is not controlled by any party it’s an independent organisation like all of our regulators.
Anyway energy is more than just electricity and gas you might have noticed that diesel and petrol have gone down in price and the ONS has reported that energy is actually reducing overall inflation right now because of the falling prices.
You clearly are a very arrogant person. This is the ONS view on inflation.
The largest upward contributions to the inflation rate came from housing and household services (mainly electricity, gas and other fuels), as well as food and non-alcoholic beverages.
OFGEM decreased the cap to £2000 per household average, but the subsidies stopped. It is still the largest factor in the inflation figures.
“Rising prices for air travel, recreational and cultural goods and services, and second-hand cars resulted in the largest upward contributions to the monthly change in both the CPIH and CPI annual rates.”
“Falling prices for motor fuel led to the largest downward contribution to the monthly change in CPIH and CPI annual rates, while prices for food and non-alcoholic beverages rose in May 2023 but by less than in May 2022, also leading to an easing in the annual rates.”
“Core CPI (excluding energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) rose by 7.1% in the 12 months to May 2023, up from 6.8% in April, and the highest rate since March 1992; the CPI goods annual rate eased from 10.0% to 9.7%, while the CPI services annual rate rose from 6.9% to 7.4%.”
“The slight rise in the annual CPIH inflation rate in May 2023 broadly reflected offsetting contributions across the different product groups. A large upward effect from recreation and culture was offset by a large downward contribution from food and non-alcoholic beverages. The overall effect from transport masked larger, offsetting underlying contributions from motor fuels (downward), air fares (upward) and second-hand cars (upward).“
https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/may2023
Try looking at what is actually happening in recent months rather than over the last 12 months. When deciding what factors are keeping inflation high you want to look at what is changing month by month.
Imagine calling other people arrogant while spouting conspiracy nonsense about OFGEM and conservative donors.
I quoted facts. There is no conspiracy theory unless you believe the ONS is heading a campaign.
As for control of OFGEM, do you think they set their own guidelines? They really do not. They are about as independent as our police or electoral commission. This is why they imposed such stringent policies regarding market stabilisation in 22. Or are you going to claim this was in the interests of the consumer?
You have 18 months left. The clock is ticking.
What are you on about. I just provides you with 4 quotes from the ONS, which by the way has the same appointment process as OFGEM.
You think a bunch more bankruptcies in energy providers would have been better for the consumer? Did you forget what happened with Bulb.
18 months for what?
Sigh, your figures from the last 3 months have no merit. We still have an inflation issue. And people are paying more for their bills now than they were 3 months ago. The reduction has just been announced by suppliers. Now I had an £80 rise last month and that has been dropped to £40 next month. That is still an extra cost. Deflation is when costs are reduced. We do not have deflation regards energy, except in how much suppliers have to pay for it.
Increasing interest rates is not going to solve anything other than make the economy worse. The issue is due to supply restrictions. how exactly have these been resolved?
They have not. Go listen to the last Question Time with a supplier telling you exactly this. Listen to the many economists who are shouting about how bad this policy is. The government have back healed the problem as a BoE issue. It is not, the BoE cannot remove restrictions to supply. The BoE cannot impose price restriction on the likes of shell and co. Who btw are Tory donors. The supply issues are expected to go even more out of control when we introduce actual border checks for the first time since leaving the EU. They will balloon even more again when the EU introduces biometric checks.
As for energy suppliers going bankrupt, it is not the end of the world. They are just middlemen and nothing more. Wales have already said they will set up their own energy company. But because of OFGEM imposing penalties on new companies offering a cheaper alternative, that means we will have to pay the old company compensation for taking their business (unless they introduce freeze pricing until the time limitation runs out). Bulb however does not exist anymore it is now owned by octopus. We are paying even more to France for our energy.
OFGEM is not independent. It is a non ministerial dept under direct supervision of government. This is why Christine Farnish resigned last year. And also why Sunak imposed energy caps by a statement to the house. The ONS does have some independence, but they work to guidance set by government. This government has blocked more FOI requests than any other government since FOI was introduced.
As for the 18 months. That is the longest this bunch of scumbags can stay in power. The abuse they can reap is near its end. Thankfully.
You have no idea what you are talking about. It was Truss that brought in the energy caps and it required a vote in the house.
What matters with the inflation situation is what is happening now not what happened one year ago. Because that tells you what is changing now. If inflation goes to zero it doesn’t mean price are going down it means they stop rising. The aim is to reduce the rate at which prices are going up, to do that you have to look at what is still causing inflation in recent months.
If energy suppliers go bankrupt is a big deal. It cost the government multiple billions because Bulb went bankrupt that money doesn’t come from nowhere. Some of the additional costs in bills was due to that bankruptcy as the money is recovered via the standing charges.
You have a mistaken impression that I think this government is good, I don’t, I look forward to the day they are out. But I don’t spout absolute bollocks as a way to attack them. And I especially don’t do that by attacking agencies which do a lot of protect consumers.
The idea that any government dept is independent is ludicrous. They work under the guidance of government. This means they can never be independent. The board is even appointed by government, and we know how corrupt these shithouses are.
Inflation is still happening now, and energy costs are part of that issue. They are not deflationary as you stated. It only cost the government billions for bulb because they choose to do so.
Anyone can set up an energy firm. As I have already said Wales have said they are going to do this as a nonprofit organisation. We as a country would have had no liabilities to the cost of bulb going under until after we bought it out. Octopus went on to make a killing on the sale of Bulb when it was taken back out of nationalisation.
I am not talking bollocks. Raising interest rates will have no effect on inflation. Something that many economists are also stating. Arguing against that and stating energy costs are going down is bollocks.
Bulb only cost billions because the government chose to make it cost billions? What world do you live in where a company with millions of customers going bankrupt costs nothing. You are the one arguing that we should have left all the energy suppliers to go bankrupt in 2022 and that would have somehow been better for consumers. Genuinely insane.
I never said let them go bankrupt. I said we had no liability until the government bought off them. And again you miss the point. Anyone can start an energy supplier. If one goes bankrupt then we would have to supply ourselves like we used to. That would mean the government doing some work.