http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/25/david-cameron-energy-reforms-gas-bill?commentpage=3
Eco-smug. This man has spent 30,000 making his house cheap to heat, but thanks to changes to standing charges, will now have to pay up to £120 A YEAR for gas.
He funded the work by not running a car. A real sacrifice considering he lives in Zone 2
This is all just chatter around the edges, obviously. No-one's crying into their breakfast at a rich bloke paying 100 quid extra a year. He should probably pay that in smug-tax alone. This ^ is nothing to do with people who actually can't afford to be warm.
Similarly, all the helpful hints all over the press about closing doors, fitting room thermostats, overhauling your boiler system, showering instead of bathing don't apply to many of the most disadvantaged in society.
Those of us in the private-rented-sector, those people who have no security of tenancy beyond the next pay-cheque, whose landlords see us as cash-cows and our homes merely as financial instruments have no remedy here. I can't invest in insulating, plumbing or upgrading a home which isn't mine beyond November. I'm loath even to fit a door onto my sitting room, which has been missing since i moved in.
If we're really getting into taxing unreasonably high profits in order to alleviate the fuel bills of the poor, perhaps the private rented sector has a part to play. Return on investment in the rental sector is about 6% per annum, HIGHER than returns currently on investing in the energy sector.
We can make private landlords face up to the social responsibilities of providing homes for profit. They've been lining their own lofts with with piles of cash, milked largely from the housing benefit system. It's surely time for them to put ALL their houses in order.
