No matter how much the combined gas and electricity bills rise in Catalonia from this winter, they will never reach the six hundred euros that, on average, the British have been warned that they will have to pay each month to energy companies that, by virtue of of the laws of supply and demand, they made billions in the last quarter.
The average annual income of a working person in the UK is €22,000, which means that soon the cost of energy will gobble up a third of what many earn, not to mention those who find themselves out of work. or they depend for health reasons on state subsidies, which are not exactly generous. The country sees a tragedy coming, with Prime Minister Boris Johnson missing in the last throes of his term (he leaves power on September 5), and the candidates to succeed him (Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss) handed over to the leadership campaign tory. Union leaders have likened the situation to the pandemic and are demanding similar solutions.
With 14.5 million Britons officially "poor" (half of them, despite having jobs, four million children and two million pensioners), it is clear that many will not be able to afford the bills, or will have to choose between eating or get cold (churches and community centers have already offered shelter to those who need a warm place to spend the night). A campaign to not pay gas and electricity companies (Don't Pay UK) and to cancel direct debit payments at the bank has already exceeded one hundred thousand signatures, despite threats of legal action, ruining people's credit in question, installing prepaid meters and sending bailiffs to try to collect.
Former Labor Prime Minister Gordon Brown has proposed the temporary nationalization of energy companies as a last resort, after imposing a cap on tariffs (as Macron has done in France), giving aid to users, seeking additional energy suppliers (the country has a high dependency on Russia and Norway) and increase gas storage capacity (the only facility was closed a few years ago to save).
The Government has announced an aid of five hundred euros per household (a tenth of what each house will have to assume) and double that for those most in need. But Truss, the Foreign Secretary who will probably be installed in Downing Street in a month, has ruled out nationalizations on principle (she is a radical Thatcherite), as well as an additional tax on energy profits, and opposes subsidies to families, which he has described as “charity”. Her plan is to cut the tax burden in the order of 35,000 million euros and lift the moratorium on fracking, that is, let the market act.
His rival for the leadership, former Economy Minister Rishi Sunak, proposes to suspend VAT and gas and electricity rates, and for the state to assume the debt of those who cannot pay. But for tens of millions of members of the middle class, it is a drama susceptible to a poll tax rebellion, which was the grave of Thatcher.
In a meeting with the executive directors of the companies in the sector (at which Boris Johnson attended, to the surprise of everyone), the Government warned them to dedicate their extra profits to smoothing bills in the fall and winter and investing in technology. , if they do not want an increase and extension of the extraordinary tax on their profits, introduced in May, valid until December 2025, and which will collect 20,000 million euros.
The Liberal Democrats are the only ones with a clear and resounding proposal, which is the freezing of prices at their current level at a cost of 40,000 million euros. But they have no chance to rule.
