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Peter Black and South Wales West Liberal DemocratsRepresenting Aberavon, Bridgend, Gower, Neath, Ogmore, Port Talbot, and Swansea |
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AM calls for urgent action to reduce gas and electricity bills
September 19, 2006 4:48 PM
South Wales West Liberal Democrat Assembly Member, Peter Black, has demanded that the privatised utilities take immediate action to reduce their prices before the winter in the light of the fact that wholesale gas and electricity prices have plummeted recently.
The country's largest utilities, including British Gas, Powergen and npower, have raised their customers' bills twice this year, blaming higher gas costs. Last week npower said it would be imposing a third increase on October 1, raising gas bills by 17.2 per cent and electricity bills by 9.9 per cent.
"I have said before that these privatised utilities should try to accept that they have a duty to their customers as well as to their shareholders, and cut the amount they pay out in dividends to cushion the effect of these huge price increases upon people," said Mr. Black. "Now I discover that UK winter wholesale gas prices have fallen by a quarter in the past four months - and electricity prices by 30 per cent for the same period."
"The private sector power and gas companies always seem very eager to pass along price increases to their customers. It will be very interesting to se if they are quite so eager to pass along these price decreases. Or will they simply continue to charge more for a commodity for which they are paying substantially less and just trouser the profits? To do so would be unacceptable and immoral. They must act now, and reduce the prices they are charging ahead of the winter months so that those on fixed incomes and the vulnerable have less to worry about when it gets colder. In particular, npower should cancel its planned October increase."
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