Britannia Radio

This is quite a salutary reminder that you can't 100% trust all you 
read - especially in newspaper headlines or anywhere in a tabloid.

The tabloids try to tell you that we're being ripped off, whereas at 
the end of last year we were paying slightly less for gas than our 
neighbours and roughly the same for electricity.  With this year's 
increases this, however,  may no longer be true.

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TELEGRAPH   5.11.08
UK gas and electricity bills increasing at twice the rate of European 
neighbours
Gas and electricity bills in Britain have increased at well over 
twice the rate of France and Germany, according to new research.

By Harry Wallop, Consumer Affairs Editor

The figures, which show UK bills have risen more than in almost any 
other developed nation, will once again raise the question about 
continental energy companies "picking the pocket" of British 
consumers. Four of the six biggest gas and electricity firms in the 
UK are European-owned.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and 
Development - a club of the world's 30 richest nations - energy 
prices in the UK have increased by 29.7 per cent over the last year.

This is twice the rate of the European average and compares to 14 per 
cent in France and 12.2 per cent in Germany. Only Norwegian consumers 
are suffering from a higher level of energy inflation.

Ed Mayo, chief executive officer of the Government's new super-
watchdog Consumer Focus said: "The UK energy consumer is being 
clobbered faster and harder than those in Europe. Other countries may 
be doing more to keep their prices down and we should learn from 
them. The UK has a relatively free market, but the freedom to cut 
prices in the early years seems now to be the freedom to raise prices 
with impunity.
"Of course, those least able to afford it suffer most."

The data comes less than a week after British Gas ruled out cuts in 
customer gas bills any time soon, claiming that wholesale gas prices 
remained too high for it to countenance such a move.

Energy experts point out that British consumers suffer more than 
their European neighbours because of both its reliance on the gas 
market and it lack of storage capacity. France, for instance, derives 
37 per cent of its energy from its nuclear power stations, meaning it 
is less reliant on the volatile global gas price.

Britain also has invested far less in gas storage capacity, which 
means it is less easy for this country to buy gas when it is cheap 
and store it for the winter.

There is enough storage to supply the country with gas for just 13 
days, compared with 99 days in Germany and 122 in France.
Householders have been hit by spiralling inflation - currently at 5.2 
per cent - as well as rising bills.

A spokesman for the Energy Retailers Association (ERA) insisted that 
European companies were not "ripping off" their British customers.
Npower and e.on are German owned, while EDF is French and Scottish 
Power Spanish. The only two major companies that are still British 
owned are British Gas and Scottish & Southern Energy.

The spokesman for ERA said: "What the OECD's figures fail to 
demonstrate is that British customers have enjoyed historically very 
low prices compared to Europe and indeed the rest of the world. 
Primarily this is due to us having our own vast reserves of natural 
gas in the North Sea and not being exposed to global prices in the 
same way as we are now.
"We are no longer an energy island. With increased demand from 
growing economies such as India and China, the prices we now pay for 
our energy are more vulnerable to fluctuations across the world," she 
said.

The most up-to-date figures from Ofgem, the regulator, do suggest 
that British consumers enjoy slightly lower gas prices than the rest 
of Europe, while our electricity bills are in line with out neighbours.

However, these figures are from the end of last year, since when 
annual gas bills have increased in the UK by £277 on average to hit 
£834 - an increase of nearly 50 per cent.

Joint gas and electricity bills - dual fuel - have climbed from £912 
at the start of the year to £1,303.

Scott Byrom, utilities manager at personal finance website 
MoneySupermarket.com, said: "UK consumers are going to be upset to 
see customer bills in Europe rise far less quickly. The Government 
needs to address the issue of lack of storage and make some serious 
investment."