Fuel Save offers may cost you more!

View across to Bread St, Ruscombe

A wee while ago I noted my small part in getting £12m for fuel poverty and renewables in Stroud District - see here - well here's a related issue....Green party colleague, Gerald Hartley, sent me a note before Christmas warning about the fuel save offers that don't save.....

Tis the season for giving, so this takes some forgiving!

Some energy adverts promising large discounts and free energy are leaving consumers duped at best but often out of pocket, according to an investigation. Which? found that one ad for Southern Electric (SSE) claiming to make customers up to £100 richer could have ended up actually costing people £133. Another ad for E.ON offering two months' worth of free energy saved people just £4.
The watchdog monitored and analysed energy company ads for more than a year, concluding that seven of them could be misleading. I hope that people locally have managed to avoid 'deals' that leave them worse off. 

I wonder, is it inevitable that when you transfer the nations infrastructure into private hands that, rather than bringing about the hoped for efficiencies, it so often results in profiteering and customer exploitation? Has there at least been some service improvements perhaps in railways, gas and electricity?  Hmmmmm!

At SDC, in addition to plans for investment in our housing stock, we are exploring if there are ways to support better low cost fuel offers more for tenants and others....

Nationally Energy minister Ed Davey has pledged to fight rising household gas and electricity bills - but we are seeing very little action - last week's Fair Energy Summit, an interactive, online map revealed the full nationwide scandal of fuel poverty. The map, put together by Turn2us, part of national charity Elizabeth Finn Care, was created by asking people their income and energy costs. See Independent article here.