Complete Finance Blog

The gas and electricity watchdog ‘needs to do more’. The gas and electricity watchdog is facing criticism from consumer groups over some of its new strategies.

Campaigners at Consumer Focus and Which? believe that Ofgem needs to do more to help customers, the Times reported.

Ofgem has made efforts recently to improve customer billing systems, introducing new licences aimed at closing the price gap between general tariffs and cheaper online-only tariffs.

An initiative to provide extra information on customer bills is also scheduled to be launched in July 2010.

It is hoped that this measure will allow households to compare gas and electricity prices better, by making it clear how the cost of their current energy usage is calculated.

Meanwhile, increased regulations governing “hard sell” techniques from energy suppliers will come into effect in January.

Speaking to the newspaper, Fiona Cochrane at Which? Read more…

Despite the UK government spending billions upon billions of pounds trying to convert UK consumers to “green energy” it would appear that they have taken their eye off the ball with regards to gas supply in the UK. Today’s revelation that over 50% of UK gas demand will be provided by overseas suppliers would suggest that investment in the UK gas industry has been neglected over the last few years.

As we mentioned in one of our earlier posts, it was only 2003 when the UK was a net exporter of gas which begs the question why was this gas exported if the experts could and should have predicted a shortage just six years later. Despite the fact that the UK energy industry is majority owned by overseas conglomerates, we are now in a situation where at the moment the gas industry is dependent upon overseas suppliers with little or no leeway in negotiating costs.

Even though the UK is home to some of the largest oil and gas companies in the world, namely British Petroleum and Shell transport and Trading, how on earth have we got ourselves into this current situation?

Consumers are rightly concerned regarding their ever growing energy bills, something which many people will have to learn to live with for the foreseeable future. Read more…

The government announced an extension to the car scrappage scheme in September 2009. With consumers given £2,000+ off new vehicle prices this could see some bargains.

In the budget of April 2009 the government announced details of a new car scrappage scheme. Designed to give the ailing motor industry a boost this scheme can help a consumer buy a new car with a £2,000+ discount.

Initially set to run until February 2010, or until the subsidies ran out, the government announced at its Party Conference on September 28th 2009 that the scheme would be extended with the injection of another £100 million to allow vehicle scrappage for up to 400,000 cars and vans. So, how does the scheme work?

How Does the Vehicle Scrappage Scheme Work?

The scheme was established to encourage consumers to buy new cars to give the industry some much needed support. The aim here is to help people finance the purchase of a new car or van and, in return, they put their old vehicle up for scrap.

The subsidies given here are part funded by the government and part funded by the car manufacturers. No

Read more…

While it seems that Alistair Darling has finally cracked the nut which is the UK banking industry’s remuneration and bonus system, there are concerns this evening that the headlines of today are in effect worthless. A number of bankers up and down the UK are looking towards such protections as the human rights act amid concerns that the sector is being victimised and high earners are top of the government’s hit list.

The human rights act has been used on numerous occasions in the past to protect private information from the public domain and many legal experts believe there is a case to answer with regards to the UK government’s relentless pursuit of the sector. Victimisation, harassment and other such terms spring to mind when you consider the media witch-hunt which has followed the likes of Sir Fred Goodwin and other high-profile financial figures.

However, in reality Alistair Darling is well aware that promises made today regarding remuneration and bonuses are unlikely to be upheld in the short, medium and longer term but the need to be seen by voters to be doing “the right thing” ahead of an election is more important. H Read more…