Bulb are still trading (in special administration) so you leave your Direct Debit and continue to pay.
Bulb - Finally going into Administration
- Thread starter neil_g
- Start date
Bulb are still trading (in special administration) so you leave your Direct Debit and continue to pay.
Associate
Yeah , i am on this ship too, just going to leave things as they are and wait for the next steps; Don't think there is much to do here apart from pray they sort it.
Caporegime
So the government have stepped in to prop them up to the tune of £1.7bn. Does this mean that the public are essentially subsidising the energy costs of people on bulbs tariffs that are currently losing the company masses of money? It sounds like they are hoping that bulb can be saved and will continue to operate in the future but 1.7bn is a lot of money to pay back if they are expected to do so.
Bulb have long been criticised for being more focussed on advertising and getting customers than they have with running a sustainable business and other companies have struggled to compete with their introductory offers, referral rewards and low prices. I can't help but feel like businesses should face a lot of scrutiny when they reach a size that is "too big to fail".
Bulb have long been criticised for being more focussed on advertising and getting customers than they have with running a sustainable business and other companies have struggled to compete with their introductory offers, referral rewards and low prices. I can't help but feel like businesses should face a lot of scrutiny when they reach a size that is "too big to fail".
Just let them go bust. The last person out can turn off the lights, 1.7 million of them.
Soldato
- Joined
- 16 Aug 2009
- Posts
- 7,750
Yes.
This govt is starting look more and more like Gordon Brown's in its dying days. Clueless, inept, rudderless and wasting eye watering amounts of money.
LOL wat? How are they going to do that - ask everyone collectively to go on an energy strike and use substantially less?
Yeah, it's stupid. They should just remove the price cap.
No concern for those who will already be struggling to keep warm this winter at current prices?
Do you think things are working well then? Multiple energy companies going bust and the government just bailing this one out?
Things clearly aren't working well. If your solution to the problem (of energy companies going bust and a government bailout) is removing the price cap, I'm asking if you think there should be some other form of protection or are you not concerned by those who simply couldn't afford the inevitable price hike this winter?
Bailouts are the worst solution to the problem because you just get more companies following suit and going bust.
The government largely created this problem in the first place with the absurd price cap, it would have been better to increase benefits to protect people than to put a price cap on which inevitably results in unsustainable business models, and stop charging VAT on essential utilities, it's a disgrace.
Think about how mental it is to put a price cap on electricity because it's too expensive and then to charge 5% VAT on top of the supposedly unaffordable electricity price...
Soldato
Gosh. It's almost as if certain things like utilities should not be privatised.
https://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-collapse-of-avro-energy-and.html?m=1
https://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.com/2021/09/the-collapse-of-avro-energy-and.html?m=1
Caporegime
Yes, thank you for paying for my energy
You *******
On a more serious note, if you are a company of Bulbs size then you should be forced to undergo serious audit when your size could put this much money at risk from the public purse.
We've seen it in so many sectors. Companies essentially running on a razors edge whilst paying out huge dividends and bonuses and then coming to the government with their hands open when things go wrong. They really need to sort out the removal of risk from individuals when it comes to huge companies. If you want to give people massive bonuses then you have to make sure your business is robust as hell and can handle a downturn in the market.
The government should also have eased the price cap. Yes it sucks but as long as they protected the most vulnerable they could have saved a lot of smaller energy providers and avoided this sort of thing. I'm not suggesting they raise it to a ridiculous amount but there will have been a number that was palatable and the blow to consumers could have been softened by lowering the cap in future. Currently we know that all these remaining companies will do is up it to the max when the limit is raised in April and hit us hard to recoup losses when prices go down again.
Its essentially just kicking the can down the road while a load of businesses go under unnecessarily.
Do you think many households would have been able to sustain an increase in cost if there was no cap? IIRC at its peak the unit cost shot up something like 88x. I've no idea how that would actually translate down to the price of a kWh, but i could definitely imagine an average utility bill of £100/month shooting upto something like £500/month.
It's easy to say it would have been better to increase benefits to protect people from the price hike, but the majority of people who would not be able to sustain that price hike are likely not even on any benefits and therefore the system isn't even available to them - would also likely take years to get into motion for what is hopefully a short-term blip.
You *******
On a more serious note, if you are a company of Bulbs size then you should be forced to undergo serious audit when your size could put this much money at risk from the public purse.
We've seen it in so many sectors. Companies essentially running on a razors edge whilst paying out huge dividends and bonuses and then coming to the government with their hands open when things go wrong. They really need to sort out the removal of risk from individuals when it comes to huge companies. If you want to give people massive bonuses then you have to make sure your business is robust as hell and can handle a downturn in the market.
The government should also have eased the price cap. Yes it sucks but as long as they protected the most vulnerable they could have saved a lot of smaller energy providers and avoided this sort of thing. I'm not suggesting they raise it to a ridiculous amount but there will have been a number that was palatable and the blow to consumers could have been softened by lowering the cap in future. Currently we know that all these remaining companies will do is up it to the max when the limit is raised in April and hit us hard to recoup losses when prices go down again.
Its essentially just kicking the can down the road while a load of businesses go under unnecessarily.
I think there's talk come April of stricter regulation in the market. It'll likely be needed as once the energy price settles again, we'll probably start to see "new startups" in the sector - i.e. all the directors from previously failed energy companies.
They're talking about a 40-50% rise aren't they?
Yeah, 30% seems to be the minimum we can expect unless gas prices crash. I know a 30% rise will cost me about an extra £600 per year.
Ouch.
I guess a 50% rise would push the max price of a kWh of electricity to closer to 30p. So an average £100 would be £150 making a year bill go from £1200 to £1800.
Some of the people posting on the energy megathread are already paying £200-250 a month, so a 50% rise could see their yearly bill go from 2400/3000 to 3600/4500.
Imagine paying 4.5k a year for a domestic property.
Caporegime
I wonder if it will push a lot of people to get solar and ultimately Russia are shooting themselves in the foot here.
We're in an old house with awful insulation so we will be hit hard by any large increase to energy costs.