Jane Bradley: Energy companies give us all a lesson in greed

IT is one rule for one, and something totally different for the other.When those poor energy companies were suffering from spiralling wholesale gas and electricity prices, we were asked to bear with them.

We, as the consumers, just had to sit back and take it. We watched our bills rocket by 21 per cent over a period of just a year. And while we complained, we also sighed resignedly – feeling that the whole thing was inevitable. It was no-one’s fault, it was the inexorable result of living in a capitalist society that is currently reliant on fossil fuel energy.

But in recent months – you might not have noticed, as everyone kept it very quiet – wholesale prices started to creep down. Suddenly the flurry of press releases dispatched from the energy companies to lament their financial woes publicly, mysteriously stopped.

Then, a few weeks ago, one company after the other coincidentally started to drop their energy prices.

Smaller companies Ovo and Co-operative Energy were first, followed by EDF Energy. We should all be very excited and grateful, they told us – as bills were going to be reduced by an average of 2.6 per cent, according to figures from uSwitch.com. Never mind the fact that the average dual fuel bill was still £190 higher than it was a year ago, of course.

This week, we hear, EDF has heralded an 8.5 per cent rise in UK earnings, taking its British profits for the year to €1,912 million.

Now I’m no expert, but that seems like an awful lot of money. It was, they explained, mainly due to the reduction in wholesale electricity and gas prices. Amazing. So while our bills are reduced by a few pounds because of falling wholesale prices, the companies themselves manage to save an awful lot more money.

SSE recently predicted its own profits would rise by 2 per cent this year.

I’m all for them running a healthy business, but when about a quarter of Scots are in fuel poverty – ie, spend more than 10 per cent of their household income on energy bills – is it not time to give something back?