The cost of living and energy prices

Some have queried why Ministers have not been sharing tips to keep the energy bills down. I think they are wise not to. Someone on a six figure salary who can afford the price rise is not well placed to lecture others on how they might use less energy. There are plenty of experts who can help people see if they can manage their bills down a bit without going cold.

These experts and the industry backing energy efficiency measures can help all of us see if we can insulate our homes and improve our use pattern of energy to save energy or to save money on the bills. Anyone thinking of a heat pump will be told they first need to insulate their homes to high standards to get any such installation to work. Such high standards will cut the bills for a traditional gas boiler quite a lot.

More insulation comes at a cost. There are government schemes to help those on lower incomes with the initial cost. The pay back from tank and loft insulation can be quite fast. Improving or changing windows and walls is much dearer and more intrusive though it may make sense in the context of wider home improvements someone with a bit to spend can afford to undertake.

300 Comments

  1. Everhopeful
    April 9, 2022

    Just want to say that Johnson is claiming that Mrs T would have dealt with covid in exactly the same way.
    Well..as far as I have read she WOULD NOT HAVE DONE. She was presented with a similar thingā€¦AIDS ā€¦and she put a full stop to the hysteria.
    So he just can not say that.
    How dare he?

    1. BOF
      April 9, 2022

      E h.
      Exactly. How dare he use Mrs T to save his scaly skin.

      1. Everhopeful
        April 9, 2022

        +1

      2. Hope
        April 9, 2022

        JR, could you clarify whether the govt advice is to travel to Kiev Ukraine? Is Johnson answering Trusses calls to arms or just an idiot? What happens if his plane or mode of transport is shot down?

    2. Donna
      April 9, 2022

      Because he’s a liar?

      Or possibly because he doesn’t know what a real Conservative is?

      Or maybe he’s embarrassed about wrecking the economy and destroying millions of lives with no justification whatsoever?

      1. Nigl
        April 9, 2022

        Nothing embarrasses him, nor his sycophants, that is the problem.

      2. Everhopeful
        April 9, 2022

        +1
        And he wonā€™t rule out doing it again!!

    3. Hope
      April 9, 2022

      Johnson sends another Ā£100 million of taxpayers cash in weapons to Ukraine! Cost of living JR? He has wasted nearly Ā£1 billion of taxes on a country that is not of any strategic interest to our country while inviting the nation to live here! Cost of living JR? Visa applications through the roof to keep your mass immigration policy going 7 dear the radar while boat people arrivals three times higher than last year put up at four star hotels, no cost of living crisis for these illegal criminals! No waiting times crisis on NHS funded by Englandā€™s taxpayers, that your party will not recognise let alone address the Lothian question after twelve years of promising to do so. No prescriptions charges for these people. Idiot Javid thinks it is morally right to provide a free world health service while allowing those English people who paid in to die on a waiting list of his. Cost of living is wrongly labelled, shambolic virtue signalling Tory policies are to blame for the way this country is run. Time for your party and govt to get out.

      Why is he prolonging the misery of war and not reaching an agreement. He must know it is a war the Ukraine cannot win and must know the world will have to get along with Russia as much as we might dislike their way of life, like China, Saudi Arabia etc.

      1. Michelle
        April 9, 2022

        I couldn’t agree more, however voters believe all the spin not least that we need millions more to come here.
        Patel has upped the visas for students particularly from India, the new shiny points system allows all to stay up to 2 years after completing studies to look for work and no doubt after that extended visas.
        Unless things have changed I believe Commonwealth citizens here including students can register to vote in our elections??

        Just make everyone ‘legal’ and you can bring in as many as you want. The Labour mass immigration scheme and disenfranchising the heritage population goes on with gusto under Conservatives.

        As for England, surely you must know by now that is a dirty word to the British Corporation

      2. Fedupsoutherner
        April 9, 2022

        OH my. What a great post Hope. I too am fed up with the devolved nations getting free everything and fed up looking after the rest of the world. Thrre is money for more and more immigrants but no more for us. We have to pay for it all. This government is truly disgraceful. I am beginning to feel that the over 75’s are being left on the rubbish tip regarding health and check ups.

        1. Iain Moore
          April 9, 2022

          The way Westminster wanted it was to have the English subbing the devolved nations, they wanted us to remain in the EU so subbing half of Europe, and with Aid we are subbing Africa and Asia. The list of countries we aren’t chucking money towards is probably a great deal shorter than the countries we are. Then when you take into account of the remittances haemorrhaging out of the country to places like Pakistan and Nigeria, the bottomless pit of virtue signalling from our political class where there are no limits to the numbers of people they want to bring here, it is little surprise we are suffering record levels of taxation and with the country on its knees. You can only presume they are out to break us.

          I don’t know what crime we English have committed, but it must have been pretty bad considering the punishment they are handing out to us.

        2. JoolsB
          April 9, 2022

          Totally agree Hope, Michelle and Fus which beggars the question, why do we go on voting for the anti English Con party that puts the rest of this so called union and the wider world first and England last every time.

          1. Fedupsoutherner
            April 9, 2022

            Jools. I’m with you on the voting issue. How and why does everyone vote for the same rubbish . Why vote for more of the same? I’m voting Reform

          2. JoolsB
            April 10, 2022

            Me too Fus. Reform party are the only party who know the meaning of the word Conservative. Letā€™s hope Nigel joins them before the next election. (Think John and the handful of true Tories should move there as well, theyā€™re clearly in the wrong party)

          3. dixie
            April 10, 2022

            Why are you blaming the voters when there is no viable alternative? – Your heroes withdrew from the field at the last General Election.

      3. John C.
        April 9, 2022

        Hope, First-rate post. There seems to be no criticism of Johnson’s warmongering. A proper statesman would be looking at shortening, not lengthening the agony, and would be anxious to find solutions and compromises instead producing sub – Churchillian speeches. His finest hour this is not.

      4. Everhopeful
        April 9, 2022

        +1
        AND apparently the govt is still spending out millions on jab passports until 2024.

      5. BOF
        April 9, 2022

        Hope, I am in full agreement with all the points.you make in this excellent post. Post of the day?

      6. MFD
        April 9, 2022

        Every Word is the truth Hope, Bojo seems to forget we had to pay for arms shipped to us in ww2. The Ukrainians must do the same.
        We cannot afford the present day conservative party

      7. Cheshire Girl
        April 10, 2022

        Hope:

        I agree. On one hand, we are constantly told, money is in short supply, and we must all tighten our belts, and make do with less. Often, the very next week, Boris is promising millions in aid, saying its our ā€˜moral responsibilityā€™. It just never seems to stop.

        President Zulensky is praising Boris for the UK response to the terrible situation in Ukraine, and little wonder , as every time they speak Boris is offering millions more in aid. I think, even the most sympathetic taxpayer, is losing patience at the way their money is being given away without any regard for them.

        1. Ed M
          April 10, 2022

          @Boris’ response has been almost perfect I think.
          You’re totally forgetting Geo-politics. If Ukraine was in South America, Boris wouldn’t being bothering. Only 10% of.
          But Boris knows that it is things like this that pose:
          1) A serious security risk to the UK (wars so often spill into neighbouring countries, especially when you have deranged but clever brutal dictators in power – look at WW2)
          2) Can mess up the economy of Europe (not the EU but Europe in general) and to a degree the world economy in general – and so the economy of the UK (costing us billions more than the cost – spread over time – of assisting Ukraine).
          So geo-politics is about are more than short-term accountancy / finance (where you need a proper CEO leading the country – seeing everything from all angles – instead of just the account / finance director. Lastly, private, companies companies DO invest / spend money such as in R&D and so on. Wise investment in Geo-politics is something similar. More akin with Capitalistic Investment than Socialist Spending.
          Well done Boris!

    4. Roy Grainger
      April 9, 2022

      Mrs T had a Chemistry degree I believe. This would have equipped her to challenge SAGE in a rigorous way on their dodgy modelling in a way that a Classics graduate backed up by Arts graduate cabinet members, SPADS and Civil Servants were simply not equipped to. Their modelling was so bad that any scientifically trained person could see it irrespective of any epidemiology expertise.

      Same with climate science of course.

      1. Atlas
        April 9, 2022

        Most likely true for Covid – and certainly true for Climate Change.

        Anybody who has been involved with modelling, predictions, etc knows that when the number of variables in the equations defining the model gets above a small number, say seven, then the outcome cannot be relied upon. This is because the precise values of those variables, which are derived from real world knowledge, are not known – they are only known to within a range of error.

        1. hefner
          April 9, 2022

          Anybody who has actually really been involved in modelling knows that ensemble prediction when the same model is run n times with slightly different starting conditions, all being sampled within the range of uncertainty of the initial observations can provide a ā€˜plumeā€™ of results originally very narrow but becoming wider as the forecast time progresses. This is a method used since the ā€˜90s in weather forecasts (and plenty of other domains) that unfortunately the long-retired engineers had never used nor been familiar with and are still completely ignorant of.
          And the worst is that these long-retired engineers are very unlikely to ever learn as they essentially appear to be stuck in their ā€˜old waysā€™, ie the methodologies and the maths/statistics they were used to use when active.

          1. Atlas
            April 10, 2022

            Hmm, have you considered properly the dimensionality of the modelling work? That is, if you considered only 4 values per variable then for just a simple 7 variable model you need to run the model 4 to the power 7 times to get your crude plume. 4 to the power 7 is 16384; that is the model has to be run 16384 times . Since modelling the Earth’s Climate properly involves modelling many hundreds if not thousands of variables with more values per variable than merely 4, you can see the extent of the problem. The mathematics has not altered one iota on this matter over the years.

          2. hefner
            April 12, 2022

            Ever heard of Edward Lorenzā€™s ā€˜Deterministic non-periodic flowā€™ in ā€˜The theory of chaotic attractorsā€™, 2004, Springer.
            And your example is (somewhat) incorrect because it assumes all variables independent from each other.
            Taking the example of weather forecast, the variables u, v, w (three components of the wind) are somehow linked to each other (within a hydrostatic or currently non-hydrostatic framework by ā€˜the fluid continuity equationā€™), same thing for pressure, volume and temperature (ā€˜the perfect gas state equationā€™), as for humidity whereas it displays a complex evaporation, condensation, precipitation cycle, this is linked to the motions in the atmosphere and the temperature fields.
            So if a problem is considered in its entirety and the various laws of physics are known, the main problem is essentially linked to the uncertainties in the initial conditions, which indeed will create different trajectories but all contained in a plume which to be significant as a forecast does not require more than 50 to 100 independent simulations.

            Furthermore, some additional ā€˜constraintsā€™ can be put to the problem at hand in the case of modelling a recurrent problem (e.g., daily 10-day weather forecasts, monthly economic forecasts, weekly pandemic forecasts, ā€¦). By starting such an ensemble of forecasts one day in the past (weather forecasts), or one or six-months/weeks in the past (for economic or pandemic forecasts), one can (mathematically) constrain the new set of forecasts to be perfectly (or within a given range) close to what has actually happened and been observed: this is another way to limit the number of required independent simulations.

          3. hefner
            April 12, 2022

            Oops, in the last paragraph ā€˜ā€¦ been observed during that period then release the forecasts ā€˜to do their own thingā€™ knowing that the initial (one-day, one-week, one-month, depending on the application) trajectory is as good as possible.

      2. Hope
        April 9, 2022

        I think the most biological factor in the difference of the two is that Mrs T had a back bone Johnson does not as we know from his Brexit sell out and the annexation and giving away of of N.Ireland without a cross word, just lies from Johnson.

    5. Peter Parsons
      April 9, 2022

      HIV and Covid are transmitted in completely different ways. Airborne transmission is not an issue with HIV.

      1. SM
        April 9, 2022

        HIV can be transmitted via [illegal drugs] syringes, organ transplants and breast-feeding for example, however, which is why there are millions of new cases each year.

        1. hefner
          April 9, 2022

          In 2020, total global number of HIV cases 38 m, global increase in new cases of HIV is 1.5 m, including ~5,000 women and girls, most occurring in low- and middle-income countries, 2020 total number of Aids deaths 680,000 (hiv.org, ā€˜Global statisticsā€™).

      2. JohnE
        April 9, 2022

        The doctors did try to tell Boris that when he insisted on going round a Covid ward like Princess Di visiting AIDS patients but he didn’t listen and nearly died.

        1. Mickey Taking
          April 9, 2022

          The body -yes, but the brain has died.

      3. Barbara
        April 9, 2022

        Peter

        That didnā€™t stop the scaremingering at the time. In the 1980s a spokesman for the British Medical Association warned that by 1991 every family in Britain would be touched by AIDS. The World Health Organisation forecast that 100 million people might be infected by the year 1990, and the Royal College of Nursing in the UK forecast that one in fifty people in Britain would have the disease by the early 1990s.

        1. Barbara
          April 9, 2022

          *scaremongering

        2. Mickey Taking
          April 9, 2022

          Was that early attempts by Ferguson to master spreadsheets?

      4. Richard II
        April 9, 2022

        True, but is that really the point, Peter? The issue is how Mrs T responded to the alarming picture being presented by the media at the time, which is what the electorate saw. She was a politician, and judged her response according to what she thought best, so as to avoid the public mood turning wholesale to fear and panic. EH is surely right – she undoubtedly responded in a different way from BJ.

        1. hefner
          April 9, 2022

          Mrs T. responded in a different way from BJ to a threat that did not have at all the same impact. First case in Julyā€™82, 13 cases by 07/1984, 24 by 09/ā€˜84, by 1997 64,472 men and 28,887 women had a diagnosed HIV with more than 42k of them being gay or bisexual. The peak of the deaths (1,900) occurred in 1995.

          Comparing as EH does Mrs Tā€™s response to HIV/Aids to BJā€™s response to Covid-19 is to say the least ā€˜simplisticā€™. The rates of progression of the two diseases have nothing in common.

          1. Hope
            April 10, 2022

            Apples and pears Hef. Johnson had the benefit of Mrs Tā€™s era and could, and should, have learned from it. He miserably filed in every regard. He went on the piss instead.

            He ignored long established plans (national and international) and decided a plan in stark contrast to all expert advice and opinion. Then ignored all rules and plans for himself considering it did not apply to him, advisors or his ministers.

            I am not sure Mrs T had the same approach at all.

    6. JohnE
      April 9, 2022

      That is a completely outrageous thing to say about Mrs T. She was a real scientist and would quickly have understood the projections she was being given better than anyone else in the room. If only she had been in office the last few years would have been immeasurably better. Can anyone imagine the parties and drinks fridges in No. 10 with her in charge??
      And we would now be really learning the lessons and preparing for the next time as Germany is doing while Boris tries to pretend it’s all over.

      1. Philip P.
        April 9, 2022

        Fortunately, JohnE, Germany is starting to move away from the Covid hysteria and their Parliament has just voted out the idea of a Covid injection mandate for over 60s. Let’s hope this long-overdue return to normality is followed through, and the country will be worth visiting again.

    7. Mark B
      April 9, 2022

      Did he ever meet Mrs.T ? Because, unlike our kind host, if he did not, then he cannot comment.

      1. hefner
        April 9, 2022

        MB, as if people could not consider the news of those days, the archives, or the biographies of Mrs T. written by various authors (eg, C.Moore, H.Young, ā€¦).

  2. Ian Wragg
    April 9, 2022

    Latest wheeze from Carrie that car showrooms have to sell a fixed percentage of pure electric cars starting at 22% by 2024.
    That’s a real vote winner together with carpeting rural areas in the Midlands with solar panels.
    So Britain is to be the offloading hub for LNG to pipe to Europe.
    That will be the same Europe that insists they have a veto on goods going to Northern Ireland.
    I think there’s a prid quo Pro there somewhere and the voters won’t be happy seeing us helping out a nasty EU.
    Wasn’t it Micron who was going to withhold power supplies to the UK.

    1. Lifelogic
      April 9, 2022

      Why push electric only cars? They create more CO2 compared to keeping an older smaller car. Plug in hybrids that just do say 30 miles in the urban areas on battery (but do not have the range limits, slow recharge times and huge expensive rapidly depreciating battery) make more sense in general. One EV battery is about 10 Hybrid batteries so rather cheaper and more flexible too.

      Is this market rigging just a subsidy for Musk and his hugely overvalued car company?

      1. Lifelogic
        April 9, 2022

        Douglas Murray today:-

        ā€œMacronā€™s presidency has been a lamentable failure. Voters were promised a revolution. What they got was an arrogant government that has been incapable of achieving almost anything.ā€

        Indeed let us hope the French ditch him for the sake of the French, Europeans and the British.

        1. Nigl
          April 9, 2022

          Sounds familiar a lot closer to home.

        2. Michelle
          April 9, 2022

          I’m not sure how we will benefit.
          We’ve got Johnson/Patel/Sunak etc in the blue Labour corner and Starmer & Co in the red Labour corner.

        3. Mickey Taking
          April 9, 2022

          The world is full of leaders who need to be moved on.

        4. hefner
          April 9, 2022

          Ah yes a very surprising comment from Murray, isnā€™t it, coming from a British ā€˜Zemmourā€™. But at least Douglas went to the ā€˜goodā€™ schools.

      2. Stred
        April 9, 2022

        Toyota have suggested that they will pull out of the UK if electric only is enforced.

        1. Mickey Taking
          April 9, 2022

          a car company who wants to be here when the nonsense world of queues for charging cars, and rationed electricity is the reality.

        2. Lifelogic
          April 9, 2022

          They are right EV cars are just emissions elsewhere cars with huge limitations, very expensive and depreciate are virtual write offs when the batteries fail circa 8 years. So a Ā£40K EV will cost you about Ā£150 per week before you charge it or go anywhere. If you do 8,000 miles PA that is about 150 miles PW so cost about Ā£1 per mile before charging costs. Plus they save no CO2 over keeping your old one the reverse in most cases. Also they contribute very little tax.

        3. glen cullen
          April 9, 2022

          If the Tories are the new green party they should be bold and issue a new manifesto, otherwise they’re using smoke & mirrors to hoodwink us….and that is deceit

          1. Lifelogic
            April 9, 2022

            Manifesto ratting tax to death socialists full of net zero expensive unreliable energy B/S but what is the alternative? Only Labour/SNP – tax to death socialists and net zero expensive unreliable energy loons. The shadow cabinet only has about two people who can even speak in full coherent sentences.

    2. hefner
      April 9, 2022

      eea.europa.eu ā€˜Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities in the EUā€™ 01/09/2021 ā€¦ sigh ā€¦ sigh ā€¦

      1. Ian Wragg
        April 9, 2022

        The EU doesn’t have many LNG offloading terminals, certainly not enough to handle the quantities of gas required. This is one aspect we actually got right because we didn’t follow Merky and rel on Russian gas.

        1. hefner
          April 9, 2022

          51 such LNG facilities in continental Europe if I have counted correctly on the map in eea.europa.eu above.

    3. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 9, 2022

      No, power supplies to Jersey, which is not in the UK, and is ruled by fanatics akin to the DUP.

      1. Sea_Warrior
        April 9, 2022

        Care to explain your ‘fanatics’ barb?

        1. Peter2
          April 9, 2022

          It is anyone who NHL doesn’t like politically SW.
          If you have an alternative view to him you can be labelled a fanatic.
          It is what the left does in general.

      2. Dave Andrews
        April 9, 2022

        The DUP aren’t the fanatics. That would be their opposition.

      3. MFD
        April 9, 2022

        As member of the DUP prior to leaving NI when Blair betrayed the electorate I take exception to your snide remark.

        1. Lifelogic
          April 9, 2022

          Indeed nor is there very much wrong with the Jersey Government & certainly not compared to the UK, Scotland or Wales.

    4. Denis Cooper
      April 9, 2022

      Wouldn’t you like us to have a large measure of control over the supply of gas to the continent?

    5. Fedupsoutherner
      April 9, 2022

      Good point regarding LNG Ian. Make life difficult for them. It’s an ideal opportunity but I bet they don’t grasp it.

    6. Mark
      April 9, 2022

      The LNG idea seems senseless to me. Gas pipeline networks have to be capable of delivering gas from source to destination. Europe’s network has been built over decades mainly on the basis of pipeline supplies from Norway and Russia and North Africa, supplemented by their own LNG terminals. We have a small capacity for export via Bacton which was built to handle the small surplus we had when gas production peaked. In summer months when our own demand is lower that capacity has been used essentially to re-export LNG to assist with stockbuild in Continental storage. There is no sense in expanding our export capacity when Germany and others are building LNG terminals where they need to be to feed their pipelines. All it would do is guarantee high prices for the UK.

      1. hefner
        April 9, 2022

        Mark, Thanks for bringing some sense here.

    7. Original Richard
      April 9, 2022

      Ian Wragg : “Latest wheeze from Carrie that car showrooms have to sell a fixed percentage of pure electric cars starting at 22% by 2024.”

      When giving evidence to the HoL Industry & Regulators Committee meeting of 30/11/2021, Ofgem said they expected there to be 10-14m evs by 2030 so I guess this coming regulation is to achieve this target.

      Now, if 10m evs were connected in the evening to a 7KW standard (not fast) charger the power required would be 70GW.

      Although it will be natural and battery efficient behaviour for an owner to connect their ev to a charger each evening, the connections will fortunately not be all at the same time and the average charging time is unlikely to be all night long.

      Even so, bearing in mind that the installed offshore wind power is planned to be only 50GW by 2030, which BTW is the absolute maximum power, not the average power, then there is going to be needed some very fancy ways developed for all these evs to have a fully charged battery by the following morning, never mind dealing with grid balancing issues.

      Except note that ev batteries are also intended to be used for grid balancing and storage so an ev owner connecting his ev overnight may find he has instead a flat battery in the morning if the wind dropped and the power was needed for more important users.

      Note also that each charge/discharge cycle degrades the battery.

      1. Lifelogic
        April 9, 2022

        As you say “each charge/discharge cycle degrades the battery” and this degrade/devaluation can be rather significant. It can be as much as Ā£20 devaluation in the battery value and the battery might only store Ā£10 of electricity when full plus perhaps circa 25% of the energy is wasted as heat in the charge discharge/process. So generally this makes zero sense economically. If you want a battery to store electricity it is generally rather better to use cheaper stationary batteries rather than expensive automotive ones in your car.

  3. Everhopeful
    April 9, 2022

    Truth is ā€¦there arenā€™t really any tips worth following.
    We are beyond that now.
    Energy is just too expensive to use.
    The cost has DOUBLED!
    The best tipā€¦turn everything off.

    1. Everhopeful
      April 9, 2022

      Our insulating attempts ( all done by professionals) have resulted in condensation and mould.
      And to get any help with such measures I am certain that one has to be on benefits.
      Thereā€™s no help for the middling sort of person.
      We are the first to go!

      1. Hope
        April 9, 2022

        E,
        No, the best tip is vote Tories out. They have caused this situation while trying to lie and blame anything and everyone else.
        I would rather vote Putin than Johnson.

        1. Everhopeful
          April 9, 2022

          +1
          Yes, very true.
          And I agree re Putin!

        2. Dave Andrews
          April 9, 2022

          Emigrate to Russia then, then see where complaining gets you.

        3. lifelogic
          April 10, 2022

          Well hardly, but what a dire choice socialist, tax to death, green crap pushing Boris/Sunak/Carrie or even worse & more of the same – Starmer/Sturgeon/Reeves.

          Though Rachael Reaves did read the dire PPE Oxon she is rather brighter than many think. She even took Further Maths A level. Not alas bright enough not to join the Labour Party though.

        4. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 11, 2022

          Take note, normal folk.

          This poster above is entirely serious.

      2. graham1946
        April 9, 2022

        Insulation is a two edged sword. Whist it can keep heat in it can also keep heat out. So if a house goes cold and you can’t afford to heat, the house stays cold, with little help from the sun on nice days. Also it is often overdone – a house must not be hermetically sealed, as many installers do and in the loft there should be some breathing space but they put it tight and as you have found out, no ventilation is dangerous, not just because of damp and mould from living, but also if an appliance goes wrong. A lot of roof timbers are going to rot, storing up problems for the future. My house is fully insulated and done properly because I did it myself, with the exception of the cavity walls, but still the bills keep going up. They have done for years, long before this crisis. Most of the rises are a scam and this so called government are content to let their big business mates rip off the public. I’m keeping my log burner and use kiln dried wood and if Gove thinks differently he will have to come with a court order. I live in the countryside. We don’t need telling how to live by know nothing townies.

        1. Peter2
          April 9, 2022

          Great post Graham.
          There is more to insulation than greens think.

          1. Lifelogic
            April 10, 2022

            Correct but the green know little about anything, often it make little economic sense and can cause damp and other issues. Hard to do retrofit well. No point insulating a house anyway if you cannot afford to heat it.

        2. dixie
          April 10, 2022

          “Perfect” insulation is not practical and we have taken a similar course – double glazing and insulated floors and loft but with retained roof vents and no cavity insulation. I have also retained a fireplace in a main room resisting suggestions to cap the gas feed there and may look to install.
          As you say the prices keep going up, but this was inevitable and one of the reasons I installed PV panels, so I can run some heaters as necessary like over the last few days when it has been cold but there has also been plenty of output from the panels for hot water and some heating.
          But this doesn’t help those who struggle on increasingly inadequate incomes and the damage to our economy, the means to address that problem are wholly within the government’s hands if they but had the wit and guts to take it.

      3. glen cullen
        April 9, 2022

        Remove the green levy and start fracking shale gas

      4. MWB
        April 9, 2022

        The cavity wall air gap is there for a reason. I even had one band of cowboys here, telling me that my ‘blown’ double glazing window pane would be fixed by cavity wall insulation.

      5. MFD
        April 9, 2022

        You must have air changes Everhopeful, its a mistake to make a house airtight. Open the ventilation strips on the top of your double glazing. They are there to prevent your problem.

    2. oldtimer
      April 9, 2022

      Exactly…and wear more layers of clothing. I think people can work that out for themselves.

      1. Everhopeful
        April 9, 2022

        +1

    3. alan jutson
      April 9, 2022

      Everhopefull
      The standing charge has doubled as well (more in some areas of the Country) so even if you turn it all off you still pay more !

      1. Everhopeful
        April 9, 2022

        +1
        Utterly iniquitous.
        There will be a lot of unpaid bills I bet.
        And disconnections and deaths.

      2. Timaction
        April 9, 2022

        It’s Tory socialism through the back door. Tax payers paying for failed power companies and the green levies for rich land owners to build and allow windmills and solar panels on their land except they don’t work when the wind doesn’t blow or the sun Sun doesn’t shine! That’s why standing charges have doubled and hidden from you. Total idiots in charge who must go and take net zero with them. We can’t afford Carrie anymore!

      3. Mark
        April 9, 2022

        That will only get much worse as all the investment in the grid and new cables for EV charging and heat pumps get put in. The plans are to gold plate upgrades to try to avoid having to do a second round later, but the cost will be on your bill immediately.

    4. Mickey Taking
      April 9, 2022

      I don’t agree – my humble daily tweaks on settings for gas central heating have lowered the alarming estimated projection bill quite a bit.

    5. Lifelogic
      April 9, 2022

      And if you cannot afford heating there is no point in house insulation as no heating in it to retain.

      Other than insulating your body with thermals!

  4. Mark B
    April 9, 2022

    Good morning.

    Someone on a six figure salary who can afford the price rise is not well placed to lecture others on how they might use less energy.

    The last people I would turn to for advice would the same 500 people who have gotten us into this mess and show no signs of releasing it and doing what is necessary to get us out.

    Our latter day, Don Quixote is as bonkers over windmills as the fictional one.

    1. Hope
      April 9, 2022

      The same MP people who just got a massive pay rise and perks only available to them! The same crowd who promised 12 years ago to disinfect Westminster but have now gone even further to cover up and refuse/fail to disclose wrong doing!! Their answer to institutional corruption, pay themselves more over a long period of time so people will not notice. But it failed to clean up the institutional corruption! I wonder why party gate was the norm at No.10! Rules for them rules for us, Behaviour!

      1. Michelle
        April 9, 2022

        Their On Line Harm Bill which remember is all about saving the children, has some very vague and dodgy bits attached to it.
        Although something may not be illegal to say/post it could be ‘harmful’ to some and be misinformation.
        How wonderful if you find too many are informing people of things you don’t want them to know, call it harmful disinformation and it goes away.

        1. graham1946
          April 9, 2022

          There is even an advert on commercial radio which says you should check each item you are told and before you re-tell anyone for truth, spelling mistakes and if something is reasonable. Very chilling.
          Seems like they are going to check our emails as well as social media etc. We already have draconian libel laws. We are well on the way to Putin style news dissemination.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            April 11, 2022

            In WWII there was a saying “careless talk costs lives”.

            That needs saying again more than ever in the information age.

            It’s not so much about keeping key truths hidden as preventing dangerous fallacies from spreading.

            However that was too late to save us from the brexit campaigns.

      2. glen cullen
        April 9, 2022

        Concur

  5. Len Peel
    April 9, 2022

    A chancellor whose wife doesnt pay tax here and who loves Britain so much he has residence rights in America. A PM who belives the rules dont apply to him, only to little people. You are laughing in our faces now. British voters do not like that

    1. Lifelogic
      April 9, 2022

      I tend to think given the endless waste, incompetence, corruption and misdirection in the UK government it is everyone moral duty to legally minimise their tax bills but to use the money wisely. Not hard to do this better than the government does. His wife perhaps understands how inept the tax to death, borrow and piss down the drain man is as Chancellor.

      The Tory on any questions yesterday said Sunak is good with money. Well good at trying to grab it off taxpayers perhaps. No one good with money would sanction HS2, eat out to help out, net zero, fund the NHS so incompetently, have taxes above the Laffer peak point and at the highest for 70+ yearsā€¦

      So his wife will doubtless now elect from this new tax year to pay taxes on her worldwide income and not pay the Ā£30k NonDom tax. I assume she will perhaps now not draw the dividend income that way it might actually be that less tax is due. Or perhaps her advisors with have some other clever scheme. But longterm the UK is not a good place to live if you are worth ~ Ā£200 million or even just Ā£10 million. If Sunak were sensible it would make the UK so it actually was attractive to the rich and inward investment.

      1. graham1946
        April 9, 2022

        Well living in the UK certainly ain’t that great if you are skint or a J.A.M. I’d swop her money any day for mine. I don’t have a lot of sympathy for people moaning when they have millions in the bank and don’t want to pay their share. Taxes on the poor are at much higher marginal rates than on the rich. See how much the average man has left at the end of the month compared to them. Even if she does pay, she won’t notice any difference. Is she is still keeping her non dom, paying voluntarily to get her husband out of a hole? Nothing to stop her reverting when Rishi gets the sack. British born people cannot get non dom status and must leave to avoid tax. Some sort of discrimination there don’t you think? You say less tax may be payable, but you can’t pay less than nothing.

        1. Lifelogic
          April 9, 2022

          Well the “share” of taxes for each person in the UK is about Ā£10,000 per person so why should anyone have to pay several millions & for such poor public services.

          1. graham1946
            April 10, 2022

            A bit like saying I don’t have kids so don’t want to pay for education or I don’t intend to have a crash so don’t want to pay car insurance. They should pay because they can afford it. We are all taxed according to our means, except is falls heavier on the low paid.

      2. Lifelogic
        April 9, 2022

        Unless that is you like paying for (and spending much time) with expensive tax planners/advisors and using expensive structures. Even then the problem is you are playing tax chess against the government but they can and will change the rules mid game, at will and are effectively judge and jury too.

        1. graham1946
          April 9, 2022

          Non dom has been around for nearly 2 centuries. Do you seriously think any government is going to change it ‘mid game’. It ain’t going to happen, too many fingers in pies, too much money innvoled. Far better and easier to keep clobbering the willing tax payer.

          1. Mickey Taking
            April 10, 2022

            too many influential friends to upset!

      3. Mark
        April 9, 2022

        They did that for the Russians previously.

    2. Sir Joe Soap
      April 9, 2022

      The tax rules are discriminatory. If you live here more than the statutory 6 months a year, surely pay tax on worldwide income regardless of nationality? Either that or nobody should pay tax on overseas income.

      1. Lifelogic
        April 9, 2022

        If you bring that in almost no one with wealth and from overseas will ever come to the UK or invest here.

        Why would a wealthy person come and work in the UK for a few years on say Ā£400K PA pay if the UK want say Ā£5 million PA tax of them plus 45% of the UK Pay too. He/she would be working for minus Ā£4.78 million PA.

        Also what is this tax for the public service provided are on average worth about Ā£10K at best per person. Even less for a wealth person who would usually use private medicine, schools etc.

        1. graham1946
          April 9, 2022

          Ā£400k p.a. and 5 million is not seriously rich.

          1. Lifelogic
            April 9, 2022

            I said Ā£5 million in tax PA! Not assets!

      2. Lifelogic
        April 9, 2022

        Then almost no rich people would come. Why pay say Ā£5 million extra tax in the UK just to come to the UK for more than ~ six month while getting nothing back of value for it? Ā£200k will easily pay for lots of lux. overseas holidays instead.

        Non Doms usually pay Ā£30k PA plus tax on UK income so many times more than the average anyway. A tax cap of say Ā£100k PA for all would be a good plan then people could boast about paying this and not even have to do tax returns. Loads of rich people would the. return to the UK or come to the UK and invest there.

    3. Mike Wilson
      April 9, 2022

      British voters do not like that

      On the contrary. They love it! Look at how they stand for hours waving their little flags when anything ā€˜royalā€™ is going on. Look at how they vote! Out of touch, self serving, patronising and useless political parties – and people vote for them like lapdogs.

      1. hefner
        April 10, 2022

        ā€˜Have you seen the little piggies crawling in the dirt?
        And for all the little piggies life is getting worse
        Always having dirt to play around in.

        Have you seen the bigger piggies in their starched white shirts?
        You will find the bigger piggies stirring up the dirt
        Always have clean shirts to play around in.

        In their styes with all their backing
        They donā€™t care what goes around
        In their eyes thereā€™s something lacking,
        What they needā€™s a good damned whacking.

        Everywhere thereā€™s lots of piggies living piggy lives
        You can see them out for dinner with their piggy wives
        Clutching forks and knives to eat their baconā€™.

        G. Harrison, 1968.

    4. Hope
      April 9, 2022

      The PM exudes rules for them rules for you. Prepared to tell lies thinking people will accept he did not know, no one told him, he was not aware even though present!

      He has allowed annexation N.Ireland but worried about Ukraine sovereignty! He has broken the act of union, created a border down the Irish Sea, goods checked from Great Britain to N.Ireland, N.Ireland protocol agreed without an argument, a murmur or shot being fired,
      Let alone Ā£100 million worth of weapons sent to help N.Ireland sovereignty. Johnson is a national disgrace.

      1. Denis Cooper
        April 9, 2022

        The good news is that there is now a small hole in that Irish sea border, a forced EU concession to the principle of “parallel marketability”:

        https://tinyurl.com/2p8muc8h

        just for medicines, and we now need to widen that breach so that not only unapproved medicines can go through but all UK goods:

        http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2022/04/07/too-many-wars/#comment-1311296

        ā€œThe exceptional provisions will allow medicines authorised in the UK to be supplied to Northern Ireland through a temporary authorisation, valid for a maximum of six months or until the European Medicines Agency grants or refuses a marketing authorisation in the EU. Specific conditions would be in place to ensure that UK-authorised medicines do not enter the EU single market.ā€

        The bad news is that Boris Johnson still won’t want to put his precious trade deal at risk by doing that.

    5. ukretired123
      April 9, 2022

      Perhaps a better cost saving tip from the Chancellor would be his to avoid tax instead – a far more valuable tip than just energy.

    6. Roy Grainger
      April 9, 2022

      What are you on about ? The Chancellors wife does pay tax here. And up until recently every single MP had the right to live and work in Germany. Why is the right to live and work in USA different ?

      1. graham1946
        April 9, 2022

        The difference is that in the USA you pay all your taxes, even on foreign income. A Green Card means essentially you are an American citizen, pay taxes there and they both had Green Cards until last October it was reported. How do you know what she pays here?

      2. hefner
        April 9, 2022

        RG, Because one can work and live in the USA (I did it years ago) without having a green card, just a visa, usually a H-1B for professionals. Such a green card once obtained gives the holder an immigration status precursor of a later naturalisation.
        Was Rishi about to emigrate to the USA?

        1. graham1946
          April 9, 2022

          Probably keeping options open. Can anyone who is Chancellor and wants to be PM seriously say they are not staying in the UK and that the UK is not their primary home? It’s nonsense and probably illegal to the Green Card rules anyway as you are not allowed to seek these positions under it as far as I know.

    7. oldwulf
      April 9, 2022

      @Len Peel

      As I understand it, she is an Indian national who is resident in the UK. By claiming non-dom status she can earn money abroad without paying UK tax on it, for a number of years. I believe she has to pay a Ā£30,000 annual fee for this. I think she would still have to pay UK tax on her UK income.

      1. oldwulf
        April 9, 2022

        BBC News – Rishi Sunak’s wife to pay UK tax on overseas income
        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61045825

        1. Lifelogic
          April 9, 2022

          I assume starting now not & for the past few tax years if she is sensible as she seems to be. Good look to her as the UK government will mainly waste it anyway – on HS2, pointless degrees, the dire NHS, test and trace, eat out to help out, net zero…

          1. graham1946
            April 10, 2022

            On the other hand, the less those that can afford it pay, the more the less well off pay. Waste is something the governments of all stripes specialise in and they will not stop so getting equitable tax must be done. Where’s my non dom status? Can’t get it even if I needed it because I am not a foreigner. Pure discrimination against British people.

    8. Michelle
      April 9, 2022

      Yes they do. They keep voting for it, and have been for years.
      The English in particular love getting a kicking.
      We are at the point now where how whole existence, history heritage etc is being trashed and rewritten.
      Watch them all vote Con/Lab again and the rebellious ones vote Lib Dems.

    9. Fedupsoutherner
      April 9, 2022

      Finally Len I agree with you.

    10. glen cullen
      April 9, 2022

      The local government elections are going to hurt…and rightly so
      Remember Boris thanking the red-wall for lending their vote in 2019ā€¦forget them theyā€™ve now gone to Reform

      1. JoolsB
        April 9, 2022

        Letā€™s hope theyā€™re not the only ones to go to Reform. Reform are now our only hope of being rid of the socialist parties.

        1. Fedupsoutherner
          April 9, 2022

          Jools. I’m with you on the voting issue. How and why does everyone vote for the same rubbish . Why vote for more of the same? I’m voting Reform.

    11. Mickey Taking
      April 9, 2022

      ‘let them eat cake’ is now ‘turn off the gas and switch the lights off’.

      1. glen cullen
        April 9, 2022

        ….and be thankful the UK is leading the way in ‘wind power’

    12. Timaction
      April 9, 2022

      If the tax laws have allowed her to claim non dom status having lived here for years, married to the Chancellor, having children here, then the rules are simply wrong!
      Acid test should be can an English National opt out of paying British taxes in the same way? If not, then they shouldn’t. The U turn shows their immorality, end of. Rishy must go.

      1. Donna
        April 9, 2022

        The Non Dom rules do allow wealthy foreigners to live and invest here, but there must be far stricter rules around those who can claim Non Dom status. I would suggest that owning a house (or several); having a British spouse and children; educating those children in the UK and doing all that for a considerable period of time should make one ineligible for Non Dom status.

        ie there should be a time limit and Non Dom status should be removed if the individual ticks all or most of the above boxes for, say 5 years.

        1. Mickey Taking
          April 9, 2022

          ‘invest here’?
          Do you mean house price inflation brought on by big spending immigrants who find Ā£30k per annum Non-Dom chicken feed?

    13. Timaction
      April 9, 2022

      Further, it is now so obvious to every person in the street that rules and laws don’t apply to this Government. The rule of thumb is initially come out fighting claiming nothing is wrong and then backing down once it is obviously wrong (Owen Patterson Gate, Parties Gate, Rishy Gate, Wall paper payments, freebee holidays not declared, Northern Ireland, PPE debacle, etc). Six figured earning Ministers shouldn’t advise us how to save and insulate against energy charges. NO, THEY SHOULD BE ON PERFORMANCE RELATED PAY and they would owe us all thousands!

  6. Stred
    April 9, 2022

    Government regulation enforced by Local Authorities prevents the less intrusive thinner methods of wall insulation. External thick foam board insulation is impractical for older terraced houses. Internal foam insulation requires 7 inches of space, reducing room size and means that fixtures, fittings and services have to be relocated. I used multifoil insulation with dual reflective cavities and halved my bills, but this had to be done DIY and without telling the town hall.
    Government insists on work being done by licensed specialists. A simple effective specification and guide should be produced which any builder could follow and surveyor inspect. This would make the task much cheaper and faster.

    1. Mike Wilson
      April 9, 2022

      used multifoil insulation with dual reflective cavities and halved my bills

      What product did you use? How, exactly, did you install it? In the cavity? On the inside of the wall? Did you have to move sockets forward and radiators?

      1. Stred
        April 9, 2022

        Solid nine inch brick wall. Internal. Reflective thin layer against wall. 25mm sw batten treated. Thinnest mulifoil by British manufacturers (Super 40) Counter batten. Foilbacked 12 mm plasterboard wallboard. U value 0.3 = to modern standard. Brick wall and plaster is only U 2.2.

        1. Stred
          April 9, 2022

          Smaller new radiator used. Sockets can be pulled forward if tails long enough.

          1. Mike Wilson
            April 9, 2022

            @Stred

            Thank you for your reply. You mention a 25mm treated batten and a counter batten and plasterboard. What is the total thickness of what you added to the inside of your 9ā€ solid wall?

        2. alan jutson
          April 10, 2022

          Stred
          The Company you highlight has a good technical department so can advise on most projects.
          Yes you are correct, your solution would not qualify under the Governments scheme.
          See my longer post further down about a one size technical programme does not fit all properties.
          Perhaps it was a bit too long to clear moderation earlier.

      2. a-tracy
        April 9, 2022

        Theyā€™ve handed the May elections away like some orchestrated dance move. Seems Labour are in a pickle so its time to give the opposition a loaf of bread not just a few crumbs. Sunak left the NI increase for two months then reduces it for everyone under Ā£30k per annum after already giving them Ā£150 per annum back from their Council tax to help with their winter energy bill. It wonā€™t be seen in their pockets until the end of July too late for the Tories on the doorstep.

        Everyday the media is blasting out how badly off people will be with the NI increase yet all the pensions and those out of work watching daytime tv donā€™t pay National Insurance. I listened to a chap last week lamenting how much his credit card debt interest has gone up and how 0 rate schemes arenā€™t available to swap around at the moment, his wife doesnā€™t work with children grown up, if I were her Iā€™d get a little job and get myself out of debt. I know other people as a couple earning over Ā£60k per annum who donā€™t have Ā£500 in savings yet their mortgage is only Ā£300 per month. Some people need aligning with people who donā€™t just fritter money away like our Chancellor and PM.

        Iā€™m not worried about Sunakā€™s wife Iā€™m concerned he is making poor spending allowance decisions with our money.

    2. alan jutson
      April 9, 2022

      Stred
      Agree that Government schemes are completely non flexible, and no help at all for anyone trying to do their own project, DIY, or on a planned bit by bit, room by room programs.
      Many houses would fail the governments tests and regulations to comply with their schemes.
      Many people cannot afford a complete renovation programme all at once with all that entails, but perhaps could over a much longer period of time, on a room by room basis.
      Thus unfortunately JR the government is doing exactly what you say they should not be doing, in telling people they will only get help if they comply with set procedures, which does certainly not suit all properties.
      My own loft has 150 mm of insulation under an 18mm boarded floor, that arrangement provides the same insulation level as required under any government scheme, but it allows my loft also to be fully used for storage, because of that I am excluded from any help, because the loft has to be done first and my own arrangement does not qualify.
      The simple solution, take VAT off of all products that will save energy, No, No, No, far too simple !
      Just for info I did sit on the British Standards Committee many years ago with regards to home insulation standards at the time, so I am fully aware of the technical difficulties of comparing one house design with another, and a one size fits all type solution is absolutely nonsense.
      Yes for information I also have cavity wall insulation, and underfloor insulation, and a relatively new condensing boiler. I do not have the latest high level of double glazing, but would get no help to upgrade or to add secondary glazing which would also give me a noise reduction benefit.
      Wall insulation is not suitable for all property types, and some upper floor ceilings will never comply with the Government requested standards, as some ventilation/air circulation may be critical to avoid condensation, mould growth, which may eventually lead to structural problems.

    3. Mark
      April 9, 2022

      Bad government standards are the enemy of the good. The important thing is to do projects that make economic sense. Government tick boxes prevent that. Time for a complete rethink, as I mentioned yesterday. I expect your costs were quite reasonable and the savings will pay them off fairly quickly.

  7. Everhopeful
    April 9, 2022

    But why do the tories just keep on handing it to the opposition on a plate?
    Why not be a bit careful regarding what the govt expects of the people and what it and its spouses do?
    The govt after all is the only sector that actually WANTS a surveillance society.
    We see them too!
    Handing us like parcels over to the WHO and any globalist body that clicks its fingers.
    Still threatening lockdowns.
    Still paying out Ā£Ā£Ā£ millions for test and trace ( tracker dogs through the forest)
    Still whacking it out for passports/ID/ whatever they call it ā€¦Ā£Ā£Ā£Ā£ millionsā€¦.

    1. a-tracy
      April 9, 2022

      Well when Labour get in charge at the local council they will do stuff that the Tories may have wanted to do but couldnā€™t because of their electoral base, like grant planning permission for a big housing estate in a field in a rich area. Or charge for green waste extra. Or force four large bins on everyone even those in tiny little terraced houses so now we have front gardens full of grey lids with bright tops. They ramp up the local councils wage bill and perks, extra holidays, bigger contributions into the civil service pension pots looking after their paymasters funders. Change and amalgamate and close schools. Change provisions of social care and who provides them.

      1. Everhopeful
        April 9, 2022

        +1
        Yes. I am just reflecting on how the tories are literally handing power to labour when a little care and sense might save us from that appalling prospect.

      2. Mike Wilson
        April 9, 2022

        That made me smile. You should visit Mr. Redwoodā€™s true blue constituency and have a look at the thousands of new houses built in the last 7 years.

        1. a-tracy
          April 10, 2022

          Have they all got 20% – 25% housing association part buys on them Mike? Are they all built with unfinished roads and poor pavements for months and years, no cycle lanes planned and poor parking. Are they mainly 2 -3 bed or 3-5 bed?
          Do you think a Labour council lead would have said no to the estates or done more?
          Why isnā€™t peoples Council tax coming down when theyā€™ve added 1,000s in each area with no extra schools and reduced services. They are bringing in extra millions mainly from people not requiring social care.

      3. alan jutson
        April 10, 2022

        A-tracy
        It was John Prescott and his Labour Government which over-ruled the Local Council, and forced through a plan for huge house building programmes in and around Wokingham, to build 860 houses a year for 20 years.
        The local Authority had no choice in the matter.
        The result, road chaos as the infrastructure in general could not cope, schools, doctors surgeries, traffic lights, roundabouts, new relief roads, all then had to be constructed to try and sort out the mess.

    2. glen cullen
      April 9, 2022

      Still allowing illegal immigrants to cross the channel daily

      1. Everhopeful
        April 9, 2022

        +1
        What happened to the great plan for Rwanda I wonder?

        1. hefner
          April 9, 2022

          I guess the Rwanda plan was as deeply thought out as the one for Albania, Ascension Island, Ghana, Gibraltar or Scotland, donā€™t you think?

          1. glen cullen
            April 10, 2022

            Or the plan to place them in british army barracks

      2. Diane
        April 9, 2022

        Illegally arrived migrants: BBC (still) reporting that MPs are calling for closure of Napier Barracks in Folkestone and still showing squalid pictures of supposed conditions ( most likely not recent photos ) The Home Office continues to say that significant improvements have been made & presumably therefore money has been spent ( I believe it is scheduled to be used for a few years yet ) So, which is it. How about some new photos & putting out some further detail in order to confirm the accusations to be correct or dispel what is being said.

      3. Nottingham Lad Himself
        April 11, 2022

        If Le Pen won then I’d expect her to give them every bit of help that she could too.

  8. PeteB
    April 9, 2022

    Sir J, agree on the advice point. Look at the reaction to the OVO suggestion to ‘cuddle your pet’. and E.ON’s offer of free socks. Valid suggestions but not well received.

    Simple steps to reduce power consumption are also worthy of promotion. Equally we could all cut food waste, reduce purchase of fashion items, live with an older mobile, etc. etc. Saving money and using fewer resources is possible for everyone. Who promotes that?

    Of course such actions will cause problems for Sunak in our consumer driven economy.

    1. Mike Wilson
      April 9, 2022

      Our local Co-Op has started recycling ā€˜soft plasticā€™ – crisp bags, pet food sachets, sweet wrappers, the plastic film on some food etc. We now have four bins in our kitchen for recycling (paper, card, plastics with the recycling logo on them) – food waste (in a compostable bag) – soft plastic (as above) – and rubbish.

      We have rubbish collection once a fortnight. I noticed yesterday there was only one small bag of rubbish in the bin I put out. I hate to say it but we could easily cope with rubbish collection once a month. We do have kitchen waste every week though – it we could also cope easily with recycling collection once a month instead of once a fortnight.

      I mention the forgoing not to give the council reasons to provide even less services but to point out most people are already ā€˜doing their bitā€™.

    2. Sea_Warrior
      April 9, 2022

      When will the government provide me with a pet? They must have a scheme for it! They do for everything else.

    3. Michelle
      April 9, 2022

      Well you may have hit on something there with your point of the consumer driven society all for the benefit of big business.
      Perhaps this may just start to make people realise they don’t need to buy as much as they do.
      You won’t be more successful or sexier or cool because you spend massive amounts of money in Costa etc.

    4. Mickey Taking
      April 9, 2022

      Fur coats being snapped up from charity shops – fur next winter?

  9. lifelogic
    April 9, 2022

    You say ā€œMore insulation comes at a cost. There are government schemes to help those on lower incomes with the initial cost. The pay back from tank and loft insulation can be quite fast.ā€

    Well yes but if you cannot afford to heat the house or keep the hot water tank on insulation is rather pointless. For the poor they will need to concentrate on heat and insulation one small room and the really poor just body insulation. The pay back on other insulation after interest and depreciation can often be very many years or never. Plus you may not intent to stay in that property for more than a year or two.

    1. graham1946
      April 9, 2022

      And you certainly are not going to do it if you rent.

      1. hefner
        April 10, 2022

        And do you expect the landlord to do it for the benefit of his tenants?

        1. Peter2
          April 10, 2022

          Well I would hef.
          The landlord gets an energy efficiency rating.
          And lenders give a better rate if their property is more energy efficient.
          And potential renters might favour a property with a higher energy rating.

          1. hefner
            April 12, 2022

            Wonderful, P2, so everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds.

    2. alan jutson
      April 9, 2022

      Insulation has always been the poor relation with houses.
      People will show off with pride a new kitchen/bathroom, or a newly decorated room, but not crow so much about loft and wall insulation, which you cannot see.
      The only satisfaction you get from this “bling is everything world” with unseen insulation, would be lower heating bills.

  10. Everhopeful
    April 9, 2022

    Why is nothing being done about these anti oil people?
    They donā€™t hobble shivering, emaciated, unshod and naked to demos so their objections do not stretch to actually giving up oil dependent goods.
    But arenā€™t they breaking the law ( whatā€™s that)?
    Or are they best buddies with our govt?

    Just wait until the govt tries to build mini nuclears. Lefties loathe nuclear.

    1. DOM
      April 9, 2022

      Political activism in the UK as in the US (Antifa, BLM) is now ably assisted from within. These outriders or shock-troops have become part of the political system and do the bidding for certain issues (social, environmental, racial, gender, sexuality etc) of parties, organisations or politicians.

      We are being played and being forced to pay for it through our taxes and many cannot see it

      There are far too many Tory MPs who don’t wanna rock the boat which I understand but we’re being treated like fools and it seems no one gives a toss

      1. Everhopeful
        April 9, 2022

        + 100%

      2. Donna
        April 9, 2022

        The extremist Eco activists appear to be part of the Establishment’s Psy Ops campaign to force us to go what they call green – which is why they are treated with kid gloves by what passes for The Law in this country now.

        It’s why, shortly after we’ve been softened up by one of their highly publicised demonstration campaigns which massively inconveniences the public, the Government announces the new measures they have been demanding to tackle “climate change.”

        1. turboterrier
          April 9, 2022

          Donna
          Is it just me but when you look at the other stuff related to turbines, solar PV, bio-mass , bio-digesters it doesn’t make for good reading.
          The impact on birds, bat’s, wildlife, water courses, biological breakdown of the sea beds, raw earth products, noise, vibration, disposal of turbine blades and solar panels to name a few. If these environmentalists are so concerned about the world we live in they conveniently forget to ask question or protest against the damage to their sacred environment. Everything will be fine because the government will pay directly or indirectly. AKA the taxpayers.

      3. hefner
        April 9, 2022

        Are you talking about those who invaded the Capitol on January 6, 2021?

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 9, 2022

          I think that he will claim them to be the peaceful, law-abiding Good Guys, Hefner.

          What more could Orwell ever do?

          1. Peter2
            April 9, 2022

            He never mentioned the Capital riot NHL
            You and your pal hef making things up again?

          2. Mickey Taking
            April 10, 2022

            he could have finished each book with ‘ wait and see, I told you so!’

          3. hefner
            April 10, 2022

            And you P2 reacting like a little jack out of his box, it is really a pleasure to witness how easily you gobble up any bait ā€˜hook, line and sinker. Thanks for the laugh.

          4. Peter2
            April 10, 2022

            I thought you might be triggered by my post hef.
            And you were
            Your little post about your bete noir President Trump
            Such a clichƩ
            Hilarious

          5. hefner
            April 13, 2022

            Oh, P2, I had never realised you were so enamoured with Trumpinouchet.
            BTW, it is ā€˜bĆŖte noireā€™.

      4. Timaction
        April 9, 2022

        Indeed they do. Carrie often offers her support, without challenge from Bunter!

    2. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 9, 2022

      Your reasons for voting for anything at all appear to be, above all, that these imaginary “lefties” of whom you fantasise would hate it.

      It’s really very silly.

      1. Mickey Taking
        April 9, 2022

        Correct – the notion of ‘lefties’ is all rather ā€˜Reds under the bedā€™ – isn’t it Martin?

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 9, 2022

          So how much of the trouble in the world just now – think Ukraine – is being caused by “Lefties” and internationalists?

          None at all, is it?

          Which ever side you take, it’s just one bunch of nationalists and free market proponents against another, isn’t it?

          1. Peter2
            April 9, 2022

            Where are the free marketeers in this conflict?
            You making things up again NHL

    3. Hat man
      April 9, 2022

      Why is nothing being done about them? Because their Daddy/sister-in-law/old school chum/golfing partner/bridge partner is a local magistrate, perhaps?

      1. hefner
        April 9, 2022

        So what have you got against ā€˜publicā€™, private or independent schools?

        1. Hat man
          April 9, 2022

          I didn’t mention them, Hefner. Still, for you to think I was referring to them, could it be I was over the target?

          1. hefner
            April 10, 2022

            Indeed Hm, ā€˜old school chum, golfing partner, local magistrateā€™ made me think there might be a connection with this type of education.

    4. BOF
      April 9, 2022

      +1 E h
      Also best buddies with ER & BLM?
      But wait until you march peacefully through London against the next lockdown, or for freedom of speech or even against digital ID’s. I bet you would be faced with police batons and handcuffs + Ā£10,000 fines.

      1. Everhopeful
        April 9, 2022

        +1

      2. Nottingham Lad Himself
        April 9, 2022

        Curl up under your duvet with your hot water bottle and suck your thumb, eh?

    5. Lifelogic
      April 9, 2022

      +1 the deluded fools.

      1. Everhopeful
        April 9, 2022

        + absolutely. Classic useful idiots.

  11. Martyn G
    April 9, 2022

    I see in the DT today that government is now thinking of imposing time-based energy prices, thus revealing the real reason for smart metering, whereby prices can be remotely changed without the used necessarily being aware. It is hinted also that government is considering making smart meters a legegql reality – i.e. you WILL have a smart meter, like it or not.

    1. miami.mode
      April 9, 2022

      MG, perhaps therein lies the whole picture. They can only control electricity and not gas as that might be too dangerous.

      1. Original Richard
        April 9, 2022

        miami.mode :

        Another very good reason for why they want to replace gas boilers with electric heat pumps.

        If everything is electrified to include heating and transport it gives “them” so much more control.

    2. graham1946
      April 9, 2022

      They’ll have a job round here. My neighbour had one installed and it doesn’t work because there is no signal. The electricity company knew that before they put it in, but wanted to tick a government box.

    3. Dave Andrews
      April 9, 2022

      A smart meter that can give you electricity at a lower rate when the wind is blowing would be a flexible way to use power.
      However, I won’t accept a smart meter the energy company can use to turn off power by mistake. That would be really inconvenient, and who knows how long it would take for the mistake to be corrected, only to find the reason for the mistake still exists and repeats.

    4. Original Richard
      April 9, 2022

      Martyn G :

      When the Head of UK Strategy at the National Grid gave evidence to the HoL Industry & Regulators Committee meeting of 02/11/2021 she reluctantly had to admit to them that Net Zero was not achievable without smart meters and ā€œvolatile pricingā€.

      The consequences of intermittent renewable energy, without fossil fuel backup, means that demand must match supply and not supply matching demand as we have at present.

      If the ā€œvolatile pricesā€ do not result in sufficient reductions in demand then forced rolling blackouts will become necessary.

      As well as making our lives more restricted and expensive it will also be a huge security risk to our country to be without adequate power, possibly for days at a time.

    5. BOF
      April 9, 2022

      Martin G
      Having spent years saying NO to a smart meter for the very reason that I do not want someone else in charge of my energy use, it sounds like they will become compulsory! Down to Government failure!!

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        April 9, 2022

        Well, if you will vote for these here “libertarians”…

        1. Peter2
          April 9, 2022

          Where are “these here libertarians”?
          Who are they?
          PS
          Labour also support these smart meters

    6. Iago
      April 9, 2022

      And a source of unavoidable microwave radiation in one’s home for people to live with 24/7. If you live in a flat, you will also get the benefit of all your neighbours’ smart meter emissions. We will live in an unnatural smog of microwaves.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        April 9, 2022

        The quantum energy – which is what matters medically – of microwaves is infinitessimally smaller than that of the nuclear radiation, which is now all-pervading, thanks to atmospheric weapons testing and discharges into the environment from the civil nuclear industries.

        1. Peter2
          April 10, 2022

          “nuclear radiation..is now all pervading”
          And you take the micky out of other people’s conspiracy theories.

          1. Nottingham Lad Himself
            April 11, 2022

            Every person born after 1945 has strontium 90 in their bones and teeth.

            Check that.

          2. Nottingham Lad Himself
            April 11, 2022

            Nay, who lived after 1945.

  12. DOM
    April 9, 2022

    No one deliberately wastes resources more than government and the political State. The culture of government is built on the abuse of resources to finance its power. Therefore, If I need advice on how to make efficiencies I won’t be seeking out the advice of a civil servant or some other unionised grifter

    I see Unite’s been raided by the Police. Just the tip of the iceberg.

    1. a-tracy
      April 9, 2022

      Dom, oh yes, public sector office blocks with car park lights left on all night on the entire estate. Office blocks still glowing way after cleaners have left for the evening. The nicest building in our town are two state buildings, one the council offices with a lake. Try to get permission for an ev charging point and youā€™re waiting over six months for a reply its just pathetic, changes canā€™t be made because theyā€™re holding people up rather than freeing people.

  13. Christine
    April 9, 2022

    Time to tackle the next looming crisis which will be food shortages. Fertiliser prices are increasing and supply is reducing which will damage crop yields together with output from Ukraine and Russia dwindling. This absurd policy of re-wilding and reducing livestock will make things much worse, together with mass house building on much of the best farmland. Strange how Biden and other countries are introducing similar policies. It’s as if these Globalists want riots in the streets. Time to call out this nonsense before it’s too late. People can only afford so much.

    1. a-tracy
      April 9, 2022

      Christine for the first time last week I saw ā€˜imperfect potatoesā€™ for sale in Waitrose when we popped in to pick up some salad ingredients, 10 large potatoes for Ā£1. They tasted lovely. We need to manage our food better in the UK. I have a minute amount of food waste it can be done.

      We were told last year Northern Ireland has an excess amount of manure, we need to figure out quickly how to convert that safely into fertiliser. We are recycling all this food and garden waste to the local council how much of it is made into fertiliser? I donā€™t understand why there is so much waste collected why there isnā€™t efficient reuse.

      1. Christine
        April 9, 2022

        I agree, I’ve always bought wonky fruit and veg from Morrison’s and we always compost peelings etc. However, we import a lot of our food and if world supplies dwindle then prices will rise and shortages will occur. The ever growing human population is only sustainable due to the higher yields from well cultivated soil.

      2. Iago
        April 9, 2022

        Yesterday I noticed with alarm that new teacups are slightly smaller.

        1. a-tracy
          April 10, 2022

          Use a mug like the rest of us do.

    2. Original Richard
      April 9, 2022

      Christine : ā€œStrange how Biden and other countries are introducing similar policies.ā€

      Whilst there could well be a plan to curb our freedoms by reducing living standards, it may just simply be that they all want to look the most ā€œprogressiveā€ and ā€œvirtuousā€ in front of all their chums when they see each other at the various jollies, such G7 meetings and of course at COP.

    3. Mickey Taking
      April 9, 2022

      If sufficient livestock, happily poo’ing on the ground, are moved from field to field, and changing grass/crop rotation used – much less purchased fertiliser would be required.
      Wilding is really letting it all go to nature -what grows will be of little use – just weeds…

      1. Christine
        April 9, 2022

        Exactly, but these green nutters want shut of all animals. They fail to understand that soil cannot grow the crops they expect us all to eat without good fertiliser. Managing nutrients in the soil is key to producing high yields. The ingredients for producing manufactured fertiliser is fast running out. Sewerage plants should be looking how they can recycle the necessary ingredients rather than pumping them into the oceans and we should be looking to produce more livestock to enrich the land.

      2. graham1946
        April 9, 2022

        Trouble is, not much money in mixed agriculture. The really wealthy farmers are the prairie farmers on East Anglia monocropping and ruining the land at the same time with more and more fertilizer and endless ploughing.

        1. Mickey Taking
          April 9, 2022

          and it becomes lifeless barren soil -no good to man nor beast.
          Generations ago small scale farmers understood that without clever clogs and seed trials etc.

  14. Lifelogic
    April 9, 2022

    ā€œSome have queried why Ministers have not been sharing tips to keep the energy bills down. I think they are wise not to.ā€ They certainly are especially as they get tax free heating allowance for their second homes.

    Simple, insulate your body not the house or heat just one room if you can afford to. Take a cold or tepid shower once a month needed or not. Electric blankets can be quite cheap to run – stay in bed longer or at the office/work longer perhaps. Shared bodily warmth too perhaps. Move to warmer climes perhaps.

    Still Summer will be here soon.

    1. Mickey Taking
      April 9, 2022

      and possibly gone just as quickly?

    2. Timaction
      April 9, 2022

      I understand your logic but these are huge quality of life issues that people resent and blame Government policy for it. The buck stops with BUNTER the eco loon!

      1. Lifelogic
        April 9, 2022

        Indeed and it seems Theatre Studies Grad. Carrie Johnson with her energy & climate expertise. This is a economic, energy and political disaster for the Tories.

    3. Iago
      April 9, 2022

      The French peasants used to go to bed for the winter, so I read.

  15. Donna
    April 9, 2022

    Asking Ministers for advice on energy-saving-tips is just encouraging the Command and Control Society the Government is creating.

    And since not one of them appears to have any understanding of the laws of physics or energy production; have no qualifications or experience in installing insulation and don’t have to worry about their energy bills because the taxpayer pays them, they are probably the least qualified people to consult.

    Spouting hot air and dreaming up 6 impossible things before breakfast is not a strategy or energy-saving advice.

    The time to consult them is next winter, when we have thousands of poor and/or elderly people dying of cold and/or malnutrition because they can’t afford to heat their homes AND eat a decent diet. But I expect when that happens they will all be “unavailable for comment.”

    1. Michelle
      April 9, 2022

      It won’t be made public or will be claimed to be false information.
      Even if people are seeing it with their own eyes they’ll still believe what the Govt or BBC tells them.

      1. Nottingham Lad Himself
        April 9, 2022

        Seems to have worked in Russia, eh?

  16. SM
    April 9, 2022

    Would someone PLEASE explain why homes need to be insulated if the climate is going to WARM UP so much?????

    1. Sharon
      April 9, 2022

      SM

      The world isnā€™t going to warm up, thatā€™s why global warming is now climate change; you know, that thing that has happened throughout time. If anything, itā€™s likely going to cool. But thatā€™s just detailā€¦ Itā€™s about control.

    2. Fedupsoutherner
      April 9, 2022

      SM. Good point. I’m sure they’ll have a smart arsed answer.

      1. graham1946
        April 10, 2022

        Usually no answer at all – see if it is picked up here by our resident expert, or loads of technical b/s. Bullshit baffles brains.

  17. Shirley M
    April 9, 2022

    Has Boris got beyond the ‘talking about energy’ yet? Has he actually progressed to ‘doing something about energy’? Maybe ‘more talking’ is required to ensure the ‘doing’ will inflict more deliberate damage on the UK and help Boris’s impress his buddies abroad.

    Likewise with the generosity handed out to ‘uninvited guests’. Generosity that is denied to legal citizens and taxpayers of the UK.

    1. Hope
      April 9, 2022

      +1 Shirley. His MPs in his party equally share the blame. They are intelligent and know what he is doing. They have a choice like us, vote him out.

      It was on the cards for him to go before he confected the Ukraine war as UK point of interest to save his skin. Where was and is his diplomacy to find a quick solution to stop the war and suffering? The UK does not have the military might to stop Russia. What did his party and govt do when Russia mudered two people on our soil? Added up to a big nothing.

    2. Diane
      April 9, 2022

      And expense related to those uninvited which we don’t always hear about. An interesting article if accurate seen on the Steve Laws Report website mentions a spend of Ā£1 billion by the H O on drone/surveillance tech to watch over Channel crossings, contracted to a Portuguese defence technology company (ends this year) All well and good but with what results or benefit. Very little I suspect.

    3. Fedupsoutherner
      April 9, 2022

      Shirley. By the time Boris stops talking Labour will be in and it will be back to the drawing board until this country is run into the ground.

  18. DOM
    April 9, 2022

    The biggest donor to Labour is Unite. Unite have just been raided by the police on suspicion of fraud and embezzlement. Why don’t the Tory party use this to attack Labour??????

    Or maybe attack Labour on other issues of a more brutal nature. We know their history and they are open to attack across the board. Johnson attacked Starmer then apologised. Why apologise when it’s true?

    The Tories are useless and complicit but Labour is a stain on humanity and an existential threat

    1. Michelle
      April 9, 2022

      Both parties are an existential threat to the people of these Islands, the English in particular.

      Why didn’t the Tory party attack Labour more on mass immigration, the resultant population explosion and strain on services requiring more immigration.
      Why didn’t Tory party attack Labour more over the rape and torture of English girls that Labour policies helped hush up.
      Why didn’t Tory party make more of the Iraq war and Blair

      Some call it the ‘Uniparty’

      1. hefner
        April 10, 2022

        Labour has not been in Government since 7 May 2010.
        How long has a party to be ā€˜at the helmā€™ to take relevant decisions on immigration and its possibly related problems? The Coalition Government had introduced some net migration target in summer 2010. They were repeated slightly modified by successive Conservative Governments. Have they ever been met in the last 12 years?
        Also, could it be that the decision to intervene in Iraq voted 412 to 149 (+94 abstentions) has anything to do with it, given that only six Conservative MPs R.Bacon, J.Baron, K.Clarke, E.Leigh, A.Murrison, A.Turner voted against (or resigned from the Shadow Cabinet) and 146 voted for?
        Isnā€™t it easy to want to rewrite history?

        1. graham1946
          April 10, 2022

          Well, in the Labour reign, population went up from 58 million to 63 million, most of it by immigration. Since 2010 it has gone up to 67 million – an underestimate no doubt with all the illegals etc arriving.
          So in 13 years under Labour increase 5 million, Tories 4million in 12 years. A bit like the Tories being the party of ‘economic rectitude’ managed to put up the national debt by more than Labour even after the bank collapses, not including the pandemic, but including years of cuts known as austerity. By the way I am not a Labour voter or supporter in any way but a few facts might help illuminate the actual scene.

        2. Peter2
          April 10, 2022

          Parliament voted on the evidence presented to it.

    2. Mike Wilson
      April 9, 2022

      Why donā€™t the Tory party use this to attack Labour??????

      Perhaps because people in glass houses should not throw stones?

  19. JoolsB
    April 9, 2022

    Not only on 6 figure salaries but just received over a Ā£2,000 pay rise, they get to stick their nice London apartments (even when they already own one), heating bills, council tax and travel to work costs on their expenses. How the other half lives eh? My son is a Junior Doctor in London and most of his meagre salary goes on these costs, no such help for front line workers in London. No wonder theyā€™re so far removed from the worries of ordinary folk.

    Like all good Socialist Governments, this Government likes to be seen to help the poor and like all Socialist Governments before them, they ignore the squeezed middle except to use them as cash cows.

    1. Hope
      April 9, 2022

      +1

  20. Brian Tomkinson
    April 9, 2022

    I have lived through some bad ones but this is the worst Government and House of Commons in my lifetime.

    1. Sea_Warrior
      April 9, 2022

      I agree. Brown’s no longer looks so dysfunctional and May would have handled COVID better.

    2. Neil Sutherland
      April 9, 2022

      Our governments are getting progressively worse after Blair set the globalist foundations.

      1. Paul Cuthbertson
        April 10, 2022

        NS-So true.

  21. ukretired123
    April 9, 2022

    “why Ministers have not been sharing tips to keep the energy bills down” because the earnings are not peanuts and most MPs prioritise claiming expenses rather than a focus on frugality and cutting your cloth etc unlike taxpayers.
    This is why Marine Le Pen is back in the French Presidential race against Macron who tries to rationalise increased costs away.

    1. Nottingham Lad Himself
      April 10, 2022

      That’s part of Le Pen’s relative success.

      However, her economic policies are hard left socialist and so to call her “far right” is, I think, mistaken.

      She is nationalist and vehemently pro-secularilty however, and if those alone make her “right wing” then perhaps the term needs updating.

      If she became president then I’d expect that any immigrants wanting to leave France for the UK – or for anywhere else -would get all the help that she could ever give them, incidentally.

      1. Peter2
        April 10, 2022

        Looking forward to you referring to Marine Le Pen as hard left socialist from now on.

        1. Nottingham Lad Himself
          April 11, 2022

          It wasn’t me who first described her as such. Her social program and her support of SYRIZA in the 2015 Greek general elections led Nicolas Sarkozy to declare her a far-left politician sharing some of Jean-Luc MĆ©lenchon’s propositions.

          Also, then President FranƧois Hollande said she was talking “like a leaflet of the Communist Party”. Eric Zemmour, journalist for the conservative newspaper Le Figaro, wrote during the 2012 presidential election that the FN had become a left-wing party under the influence of adviser Florian Philippot.

          She has also relaxed some political positions of the party, advocating for civil unions for same-sex couples instead of her party’s previous opposition to legal recognition of same-sex partnerships, accepting current abortion laws, and withdrawing the restitution of the death penalty from her platform.

          However, the BBC and the Guardian still call her “far right” here.

  22. Nigl
    April 9, 2022

    My goodness. Your comments highlight the mess the government is in and their paucity, a sign of desperation. The best you can do is support for low income families ignoring the middle classes that pay for it. All are being hammered, your tax increases, your inflation, your interest rates and your energy costs.

    Truly the policies of a socialist party.

    Today I read another ā€˜secretā€™ cost added to cover the losses of the energy companies that failed primarily due to your energy cap that everyone warned about but you took a political not economic decision and your failure of regulation.

    I now read Karteng , acknowledging that you will not be able to meet demand, is proposing to ration it through price variation justifying peak users should pay more. So families where parents come home from work, kids from school, are expected to ā€˜eat at midnightā€™ or ā€˜delay/not eat breakfastā€™ etc or pay extra.

    This from a government of millionaires. Scraping the barrel is an understatement.

    1. Shirley M
      April 9, 2022

      +1 Nigl

    2. Hope
      April 9, 2022

      Nigel +100. Excellent comment. It is truly unbelievable. I read the same. Perhaps we could all crowd in libraries to keep warm, but the Tories closed them! Perhaps there is room in council offices as they all work from home!

      1. Original Richard
        April 9, 2022

        Hope :

        In the early ’70s, just after leaving university, I used to spend Saturdays in the library to keep warm.

        I’m now thinking the best place is in A&E where I expect it will be hours before they come to check me out and discover I’m only waiting there to keep warm.

    3. Original Richard
      April 9, 2022

      Nigl : “I now read Karteng , acknowledging that you will not be able to meet demand, is proposing to ration it [electricity] through price variation justifying peak users should pay more.

      If high prices do not bring down consumption to meet supply then rolling blackouts will occur.

      Of course, through the use of smart meters, a select few will be immune from these blackouts.

  23. Roy Grainger
    April 9, 2022

    Advocating home insulation is a displacement activity, it will make not one jot of difference to the energy crisis. If we insulated every single home in Britain to the maximum (which is impossible of course) it would reduce UKā€™s overall energy consumption by 3%

    Demand side fiddling wonā€™t work, we need supply side changes, fracking, nukes etc.

    1. alan jutson
      April 9, 2022

      Roy
      Maybe you are right maybe you are wrong, but certainly insulating a house properly and COST EFFECTIVELY will save the individual a sizeable amount of money in the medium term.

      1. Neil Sutherland
        April 9, 2022

        You can’t insulate old housing stock cost-effectively.

        1. alan jutson
          April 10, 2022

          Neil
          Perhaps not a total insulation package I would agree, but you can do what is cost effective, and it will make some improvement and save some money.

  24. Nigl
    April 9, 2022

    And in other news we are now seeing shortages through another government failure you highlight regularly and receive anodyne say nothing responses from Ministers, food security.

    1. Shirley M
      April 9, 2022

      +1 Nigl This government absolutely disgusts me. I cannot sufficiently express my disbelief at their actions. Good arable farmland covered in new housing, new roads, ‘re-wilding’, wind turbines and solar panels, and they cannot understand the consequences of reducing food production while massively increasing population? They deliberately increase our imports, making us reliant on other countries for something so essential as food, and then sell off the family silver to any old country (including hostile ones) to balance the books, putting us in greater hock to foreign powers. Exactly who is this government working for? It is clearly NOT the UK.

  25. majorfrustration
    April 9, 2022

    Perhaps its time for the Tory party to start thinking ahead – with an election not that far away – where did it all go wrong.

  26. Sea_Warrior
    April 9, 2022

    Going off-piste, I wonder how much of the current problem in our airports is attributable to the government’s not telling those responsible for handling counter-terrorism checks to get back into their offices?

  27. Stred
    April 9, 2022

    I keep telling the Mrs to only boil enough watet for a cup and to leave the tap on cold and only run hot water if really necessary, or the boiler goes for a minute and most of the hot water is wssted. Also, turn of the internet box tv and computer when you are not in. Does she remember to do so. Pigs might fly.

    1. graham1946
      April 10, 2022

      Get an instant water boiler for the kitchen- not expensive, about the same price and size as a good kettle and heat only what you need as it is needed. Had one for years and they do save wasted hot water, but they do need de-furring every few weeks due to the small internal pipes. Very useful.

  28. Iain gill
    April 9, 2022

    The biggest issue with extra insulation is the damp it can cause, especially in badly designed and built new build properties. Loft spaces often depend on low quality insulation to keep the loft warm and dry. Add extra insulation and it gets wet and the wood rots. Really we should have a significant ramp up of quality of new build.

    1. Stred
      April 9, 2022

      Damp is avoided by the correct positioning of a vapour barrier on the warm side of sufficient insulation and making sure that it is sealed. Airgaps at the sides of foam insulation are causing bridges and new sealants are being recommended. Multifoils have to be sealed using adhesive reflective tape.

      1. alan jutson
        April 10, 2022

        +1

  29. a-tracy
    April 9, 2022

    MPā€™s being asked for advice. Oh I donā€™t know some MPs are proper grifters, confidence men and women clawing their way up from poor starts into high rolling positions doing their favourite things spending other peopleā€™s money while preserving their own and pushing their own families up the ladder too. I certainly wouldnā€™t hesitate to ask them about their skills eg maximising personal wealth with a minimum amount of knowledge about a subject, ask them about insulating a home on the cheap probably not though.

    Itā€™s a shame there isnā€™t a Jack Munro for the middle classes with middle class problems like over extending on credit cards to such a degree before they know it theyā€™ve got Ā£20,000 of debt and a 22% repayment charge with nothing to show for it on joint salaries over Ā£50,000! I listened to one 30 year old the other day bemoaning their credit card debt whilst coming in with a new winter coat (at the start of Spring) theyā€™d spent over Ā£120 on, then booking a glamping holiday in a field for over a grand! I want it today, now, never had to wait for anything or stay with family for a long weekend break as a holiday that year. Personal contract purchases so they never own anything and this is what we are told the elites want people to do, spend for today no assets. Itā€™s all going to crash when they retire on Ā£9500 per annum and canā€™t afford the rent and canā€™t get private rents anymore because they donā€™t have the income.

  30. Original Richard
    April 9, 2022

    To save energy, the majority of which is for heating, I just need to go back to how I was living for the first 30 years of my life during cold winter months.

    More clothes.

    No heating in any rooms except the kitchen and the living room when in use. Internal doors closed and the use of door sausages. Bathroom heated once a week for a bath. No bedrooms had any heating and clothes were kept in the bed overnight to dress in bed in the morning.

    Clear polythene sheeting taped across the single glazed windows and curtains used at night.

    I seem to recall the winters were colder in those days (I remember scraping ice off the inside of my bedroom windows) and Iā€™m very happy that winters are now warmer ā€“ which has nothing to do with man-made CO2 – it is simply a natural variation.

    A constant temperature for the planet is certainly not natural and so it has to go either up or down. In the 1970ā€™s the BBC were frightening us that an ice age was coming.

    1. graham1946
      April 10, 2022

      Such progress over the last 50 years – back to the 70’s. Says it all really.

  31. glen cullen
    April 9, 2022

    What of all the homes insulated since the 1970s, and the great push from all governments for home insulation in building regulations and the local government grant scheme for conversion and upgradeā€¦.I believe in the past 50 years every house that could or wanted to be insulated has been insulatedā€¦.donā€™t reduce people energy consumption; make it cheaper ā€“ remove the green levy and start fracking

  32. a-tracy
    April 9, 2022

    On the topic of energy and waste, can someone tell me if we burn coffins or just cremate the body in a shroud? Do we cremate people individually or several people in individual pods at the same time?

    Why does a no frills direct cremation cost Ā£950 if there is no coffin, or service and the cremation can be done at a time and location to suit the crematorium? Just how much money does the council get from high charges for cremation? It seems that even in death poor people are fleeced. This just isnā€™t a worry or concern for wealthy people and those with good pension or funeral plans (which yes we all should have with a little Ā£1 a week/month policies from the day we start work but people donā€™t) and they can have the fancy funerals that they want but I know old ladies panicking about this cost or having to cremate a brother who has made no provision.

    1. alan jutson
      April 9, 2022

      a_tracy
      Ā£950 is a typical cremation cost which is usually added as an extra to the cost of a normal funeral service and (shown as an extra) which of course then also includes an extra charge for a coffin of your choice, and all of the other “extras”.
      Only found out myself when a family member passed a couple of years ago, they had unbeknown to us, a pre-paid funeral plan in place, but it did not include the cremation fee which can vary according to the day of the week, and time of the day it is completed.
      I would never prepay for a funeral.

      1. a-tracy
        April 10, 2022

        Alan, I was amazed at the cost of funerals, sadly getting to that age when Iā€™m learning more about this. I know people with no children that had super prepaid funeral plans with the service and everything planned out and paid for that covered it all including the wake.

        But I donā€™t agree with burning coffins. I like what I read about freeze-drying funerals and Iā€™m surprised more crematoriums arenā€™t moving to this new technology and the profit on the reduced cost should not all stay with them it should be offering people a more affordable and environmentally sound option.

      2. graham1946
        April 10, 2022

        Posh coffins and all the trimmings are a hangover from the days of superstition when it was deemed necessary to give the deceased a ‘good send off’. It is of no value to the deceased and can put the family in dire straits. Yes coffins if ordered are cremated, so its a” a waste. Creamators are one at a time, small chambers big enough to take a coffin and are gas powered. If you can stand it, there are many articles on Youtube showing what happens. You can get a plain cremation with no service, cars, attendance etc. for around one thousand pounds. One firm offers this service paid in advance and no increases for about Ā£1600. Average cremation funeral old style 4000 pounds.

        1. a-tracy
          April 10, 2022

          I know a lady thats had to do that plain cremation recently graham, Ā£950 + the doctors note fee. I honestly thought they took the body out of the coffin especially the oak ones and the other expensive woods and used a cardboard liner or something, actually its something Iā€™ve avoiding thinking about up to now. A friend had thought about having a wicker coffin until he saw a friend being carried in one who was visible rolling around it in.

  33. No Longer Anonymous
    April 9, 2022

    Luckily I don’t mind the cold, love fresh air and I cannot stand stuffiness. I do note that it is women who like the heating turned up.

    Sorry. Had to say it.

    What with “Respect my sex if you want my X” and the cost of living crisis, particularly heating, you’ve a lot of sucking up to do with women voters.

    1. Lifelogic
      April 9, 2022

      Indeed my wife and daughters always want it about 2 degrees warmer than I do. But then they are a little thinner and need to wear more jumpers!

  34. Lower income person
    April 9, 2022

    The Guaranteed Income Threshold, when I applied the other month is Ā£177.10p p/w.
    I have never claimed benefits but my two modest income streams
    which were too see me out, were wiped out by covid related regs.
    Apparently the state pension is going up next March which is good.
    From now till next March ( and after ) it would help if the threshold were to be raised by Ā£100 p/w.
    That’s a threshold, it doesnt mean they are giving you Ā£100p/w
    In my case I’m about Ā£40 above the threshhold
    ie State Pension Ā£ 663.56 pcm. Occ Pen Ā£206.27 pcm.
    The Guaranteed Income thing is a gateway to other help.
    I don’t like the Ā£200 October energy loan. I don’t like enforced loans.
    Havent received the Ā£150 Council Tax rebate yet.

  35. Rhoddas
    April 9, 2022

    The Return On Investment ROI from insulation will be much quicker with high energy prices…. the latter will suppress demand too. The ROI from solar panels feeding one’s own house/batteries equally so, but these are mainly for the wealthier folk who can afford to fork out several Ā£1,000s.
    For the majority – why not use CHEAP insulating wallpaper or insulating paint?
    Of course HMG should incentivise, via Energy Savings Trust, not Art Graduate Ministers!!

  36. Barbara
    April 9, 2022

    We donā€™t need these measures – we need cheap, plentiful, reliable energy. So-called renewables can never provide that. That is the top and bottom of it.

    1. glen cullen
      April 9, 2022

      There’s really only one anwser – fracking shale gas

  37. Mark
    April 9, 2022

    I’ve got some tips for the government on keeping energy bills down.

    Make full use of our coal capacity to reduce our need for gas and keep it going until we have rebuilt our nuclear capacity
    Cancel carbon taxes that serve to drive up electricity prices far more than the tax collected, while also damaging other industries that pay them
    Suspend ROC payments by at least deferring them: there is no need for the obscene profits of renewables on that scheme to be further bolstered by subsidy charges on consumer bills
    Reopen the capacity auction for next winter and beyond for gas and coal only to try to ensure we don’t get sky high prices and power cuts due to capacity shortages: the auction failed to procure the needed capacity, and there are two CCGTs shut down in bankruptcy thanks to inept policy.
    Stop the smart meter rollout programme. Not only will this prevent suppliers from charging exorbitant surge prices, but it will prevent the waste of money on installing meters that will have to be replaced in just a few years.
    Stop the ECOhomes programme that fails to deliver value for money, and completely reevaluate how to handle home insulation.
    Remove these and all other green charges from bills.
    Abolish VAT on energy.
    Make the biofuel requirements in motor fuels just a maximum, and leave refiners to work out the best value way to make the fuels bearing in mind mpg effects.
    Cancel net zero: already far too much spending is going on expensive schemes that only exist because of it, from recabling the grid and trying to make the gas network hydrogen resilient through costly schemes for intermittent electricity.

    All of these things would have a more or less immediate impact.

  38. The Prangwizard
    April 9, 2022

    There are criticisms that the Tory leadership is detached from ordinary people; this is sickenly true. They have become lovers of globalism and this has been demonstrated in business and the economy – everything we have is for sale and it has led to trouble now even more for the less well off. We are suffering through energy shortages for this very reason.

    Now this shows in ministers, we have a man who held a much desired ‘green card’ enabling US residence, not easy to get unless of course you were famous and wealthy.

    It would have been retained if there had been no ‘foundout’. Here it is also possible for peoole to live here where they like it better than their home country, as long as they have lots of money even though they wish to retain their foreign identity and loyalty. What tax they pay makes no difference to this point.

    In other words our elite need not be loyal to the UK. As with this and every other government policy our nation is for sale.

    1. Cold as Ice
      April 9, 2022

      Your first sentence Prangwizard makes me think of poor old Prince Charles and Jimmy Saville.
      It strikes me, having watched the Netlix doc, that whatever failings PC may have had,
      he genuinely thought JS was a line to the common people because he (PC) doesn’t know how ordinary people think. Sadly he was wrong.

      1. Paul Cuthbertson
        April 10, 2022

        CaI -You are sadly mistaken. Do your research.

        1. Cold as Ice
          April 10, 2022

          Paul. I don’t know what you mean.
          Are you saying PC understands the people ?
          or that JS was just a mate or what ?
          I’m confused.
          Any research I’ve done indicates the GloboTechnocrats want the abolition of nation states and institutions. Which in Uk case would mean abolition of Monarchy, BBC, Uk Armed Forces etc.
          I believe all these things have faults but are reformable.
          Are you a Globo person ?
          Forgive me for not understanding what you mean.

  39. Low Income Person
    April 9, 2022

    Just received a mailshot from another helpful company telling me that the government have made grants available for cavity wall insulation and loft insulation.
    Unfortunately neither of the two emails on their missive work so they will be unable to answer my question as to whether grants are available for internal wall insulation locally or nationally. Each local authority has completely different criteria they tell me.
    Flat dwellers obviously can’t cavity wall or loft insulate.
    So there would appear to be newly set up companies signposting only to local authorities re cavity and loft insulation.

  40. Low Income Person
    April 9, 2022

    My previous post re guaranteed income should have read Pension Credit not guaranteed income.
    I’m losing my marbles. I keep reading that Pension Credit is vastly under claimed.

  41. Ed
    April 9, 2022

    A conservative government and prime minister in thrall to eco-loons.
    What could go wrong?

  42. 4kws p/d now
    April 9, 2022

    A few years ago, encouraged by money economy type websites I cast around looking for a cheaper deal than the big provider I’d been with forever. Change supplier, change supplier was all the rage.
    I stayed put after one green type supplier actually named online their helpdesk lady sitting in her kitchen ready to take your calls. In several fashion articles I read the fashionable ladies said their husbands “owned an energy company”.
    So these companies went bust.
    My laboured point is who let these people run companies.
    Even I , a thick Pleb with 3 failed maths O Levels can work out you would need enough spondulicks to cover wholesale gas and electric going up.
    The doubled standing charge is in part I hear to cover the bailing out of these failures.
    Does any public body have oversight on vital suppliers ?
    or is it the public’s fault for trying to get a small reduction in their Direct Debit
    or the money advisory websites ?
    I’m genuinely interested

  43. ice cube
    April 9, 2022

    Has the UK got a food security department ?
    Is it a mix of transport and agriculture.?
    How about setting one up right now.
    Not Henri Dumbledore.
    Crossparty

  44. No Longer Anonymous
    April 9, 2022

    I see Churchill (The Dog, not the great war leader) has been painting a a target on our back and donating military resources we don’t got.

  45. glen cullen
    April 9, 2022

    Rather then answer questions about the cost of living thereā€™s a rumour that Boris has flown to the Ukraine for a photo opportunity

  46. Flat Broke
    April 10, 2022

    Service charges for flats are not the governments responsibility however they could enact some legislation to say that in the current economic climate these charges should not be raised extortionately.
    I live now in a complex of three blocks. 25 flats in each block. Approx half renters , half
    owners. This is not an old peoples complex, nor are they ramshackle falling apart places.
    The Service Charge payable 3 monthly went up this year from Ā£263.42 to Ā£636.34.
    This you can see wipes out one months old age pension.
    Nobody can sell because they are replacing the balconies ( at the flat owners expense )
    over a yet unspecified timescale.
    This is minor compared to the cladding scandal but is something that is no doubt going on all over the country.

  47. P. McGoohan
    April 10, 2022

    Express has headline Sunday ( now slipped to Finance section ) which says
    ” State Pensioners could be eligible for EXTRA Ā£270.30 a week to pay energy bills”
    This is wrong obviously.
    A pensioner couple can top up their JOINT pension to that amount if eligible for Pension Credits
    Its not Ā£270.30 extra.
    When the pension goes up annually the Pensioner is informed in a nice clear letter by how much.
    How about Therese Coffey uses the database which informs of the rise to send out a nice clear concise statement outlining Pension Credit facts.
    I expect my letter next week please Therese .
    Could those who havent claimed it be computerless? Get someone to type up a letter.

  48. Lindsay McDougall
    April 10, 2022

    Help with energy bills might usefully be postponed until Winter when consumption is greater. The UK’s fiscal position is such that we need to keep our powder dry.

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