Why does the government allow utility providers put up bills when we are in a recession...?

Question

... the owners of the utility companies are recorded as making huge profits each year. Surely, they could not put up prices just this once, so as to help everyone else.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pressass/20080821/tuk-energy-firms-hike-prices-6323e80.html

Answer 1

The Government has appointed an Ombudsman for watch over price increases. They can't increase prices without its permission. When they were state owned the Utilities were incredibly inefficient and were constantly subsidised by the Government (Taxpayer). We simply paid for this inefficiency through our taxes.

Our power industry is in a mess, because the Government have avoided creating a long term power strategy. The power companies will have no chance of funding Nuclear Power Stations etc. unless it makes decent profits.

We should remember that the philip provided to the Oil/Petrol suppliers by the high oil price, is small compared to the massively increased tax take received by the Government.

Answer 2

dunno but i was freezing last year!! was costing me £25-£30 a week for gas alone at its coldest- i only live on bout £120 a week and that is for 2(my son and me)!!

Answer 3

We aren't in recession!  The price of utilities in this counry is controlled by world markets; but our weak Government doesn't help with its seming inability to formulate sound policy.

Answer 4

Gormless Gordon Brown and his b******e Darling - don't care - the more it goes up the more tax revenue they get - simple!

Answer 5

It's called privatisation of the utilities.

When these were under government control when it was the GPO and not BT when it was The Gas Board and not British GAS etc. When it was British Rail and not run by private companies the government had greater control over price rises. Now we have fat cats ( stocks and shares) getting richer courtesy of the ordinary man in the street.

It is shameful that they are so many greedy people making money out of the ordinary working class man.

And the government just sits back and watches. It's about time we stood up to these fats cats like they do in France. We only have ourselves to blame for being so feeble minded.