Energy companies’ lies – SSE’s lies – Centrica’s lies – Angela Knight’s……

As the energy companies push up their prices by 8% to 10% just before we all turn our central heating on, we’ve heard the usual lies about how they’re forced to increase prices due to the rising cost of wholesale energy.�So, let me tell you�the truth. When wholesale prices rise, our bills rise. When wholesale prices fall, our bills do not fall. We are being fleeced.

But what about Ofgem, the supposed regulator? Like all our useless, self-serving supposed regulators (Ofwat, Ofcom, the FSA, the FCA, the Care Quality Commission, Monitor�etc), Ofgem has been looking after itself. Ofgem’s budget doubled from �38.8m in 2006-07 to more than �78.7m by 2012. But Ofgem has done little to nothing for us, the people it is meant to protect from the predatory energy companies.

Meanwhile the energy companies have been making eye-watering profits from us. EDF – a company 83% owned by the French government – made profits of �1.58bn on a turnover of �7.1bn – a profit margin of an astonishing 22%. Of course, the energy companies claim they only make 5% profit on their energy supply businesses. But this completely glosses over the fact that they also generate electricity which they then sell to their supply businesses. So, while the supply businesses may only be making a profit of this modest 5%, their generating businesses are coining it in.

Iberdrola, the Spanish company that owns Scottish Power, made so much money in Britain that it loaned �800m to one of its US subsidiaries when American regulators – real regulators not like our worthless Ofgem – put pressure on the subsidiary to stick to its investment commitments.

So, don’t believe the energy companies’ lies and don’t believe their subservient politicians’ lies. We are being fleeced by the Big Six energy companies. Britain is one of the most lucrative markets for energy companies. That’s why so many foreign companies have bought our energy suppliers – they can make�four to�five times as much profit in Britain than they can in their own properly regulated home markets.