Jared Cassidy

News. Energy standing charges finally to fall a little bit. I'm pleased that after consulting the Government has listened and is shifting Warm Home Discount costs off the standing charge and onto the unit rate. It should take roughly £40 a year from the standing charge, roughly split between gas & elec, starting in April next April. This aligns with the planned unit rate reduction (from cancelling Eco and moving some other costs into general taxation). Overall, assuming all else stays equal (which it won’t, as I’ve written before) this means the standing charge should fall, and the unit rate should still fall too, because the added cost to it from this shift is smaller than the reduction from removing the policy costs. It’s only a baby step, but it’s good to see some movement in the right direction. I think this is a totem of the direction of travel, and having spoken to both Ed Milliband and the Ofgem boss about this, I think they are hearing the mood music about the standing charge. I now hope Ofgem follows this route in its long-term consultation on the future structure of energy bills. The standing charge is a moral hazard that disincentivises lower usage and keeps bills high for people who use very little energy. It’s the biggest single cause of complaint I get about energy bills, by a mile. Paying £300+ a year simply for the facility of having energy is too much. It also penalises people, especially older people, who don’t use gas in the summer yet still pay for it every day.