4th February 2023
Energy companies – continue to pile on the profits
The means by which the working class in Britain are persecuted are many and varied. Poor housing, increasingly limited educational opportunities, limited apprenticeships for skilled work, low pay, zero hours contracts, limited trade union rights, the list goes on. Add to this the so called cost of living crisis (in reality a crisis of profits for capitalism), in particular relating to energy bills, and life for many of the poorest in our communities is little more than miserable.
In such circumstances it is no surprise that some may fall behind on bills as they try to square the heating or eating circle, forced to make impossible choices in order to stay warm, maintain good health and survive to the end of another week.
Into this mix add the practice of energy firms forcibly installing prepayment meters, resulting in many vulnerable families being at risk of having their power cut off, if they cannot afford to top up. Prepayment meters are generally more expensive, meaning that the scam perpetrated by the energy companies does not just put vulnerable families at risk it helps ramp up their already obscene profits.
The energy watchdog, Ofgem, having finally woken up to the practice of forced installation, has asked the energy firms to review how they deal with customers who fall behind on their bills. The public furore over the practice has forced the energy firms to step back and most have now said that they will suspend all prepayment warrant activity, the polite euphemism for breaking into people’s homes, “at least until the end of winter.”
British Gas, one of the main perpetrators of the breaking and entering scam, have attempted to blag their way out of their responsibility by claiming that, “It’s not how we do business.” This may be a thinly veiled effort to shift the blame onto the bailiffs they employ to break doors on their behalf but there is certainly no indication that British Gas are returning any excess profits accrued as a result of their nefarious actions. It is very much how they have been doing business and may continue to be the case after “the end of the winter.”
Like a bankrobber counting the loot from his latest heist, ending forced entry is the least the energy firms can do, though it sounds a lot like saying, we have fleeced you enough for now but we will be back….
As robbery goes the energy firms could easily teach the average safe cracker a thing or two. Shell this week announced profits of £32.2 billion for 2022, the highest in its 115 year history! The company is valued at £168bn but lobbied hard against a windfall tax on the basis that it would hinder energy investments. The reality of how Shell spends its profits is quite different however.
The think tank Common Wealth has found that in the final quarter of last year Shell invested £871 million in exploring hydrogen and carbon capture and storage. Shareholder dividends for the same period totalled £5 billion while marketing cost the company a cool £1.6 billion. Apparently, shareholders will also benefit from a £3.2bn share buy back scheme.
This is hardly the action of a company committed to forging ahead in pursuit of renewable energy sources. On the contrary, a complaint has been filed in the US accusing Shell of including investments in gas under the label of renewables.
While the Tories did, under pressure, introduce a form of windfall tax on the profits of energy companies, calls for this to be made tougher are growing. There is no indication at present that the Tories will relent with Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, more content to applaud Shell’s “substantive investments here in the UK.”
Nor is the government prepared to tighten the law when it comes to constraining the issuing of prepay warrants and the forced installation of meters, stating through an unnamed spokesman that,
“The independent regulator Ofgem operates the licensing regime for energy suppliers. They have the power to fine suppliers who do not comply with their licence conditions.”
In effect the government is confirming its complicity in attacks upon the most vulnerable families, while doing its utmost to protect the methods of those prepared to maximise their profits by any means, at anyone’s expense.
The current strike wave is a clear demonstration that resistance to the Tories is growing and that their actions are clearly based on protecting the interests of their own class, rather than some spurious notion of the ‘national interest’.
Linking organised trade union action to community resistance will be vital to taking the struggle against the Tories to a new level in the political arena. That will require a commitment that the energy companies must be nationalised, in order to serve the interests of the many, not the few wealthy shareholders, as at present. That would be a real commitment to the national interest. Labour need to wake up to the need to take the lead on this issue or they may well be left behind.
Avanti Populo 