Mad, Red and Dangerous
Ed Miliband, Labour leader, kept up his increasingly bizarre reading of the energy markets by announcing his intention to fix energy for businesses.
In the normal course of events we would be delighted that a senior political figure at a major political party was taking the impact of rising energy costs on businesses as seriously as they do for domestic customers. After all, businesses don’t vote, households do.
But you will forgive us for our head in hands reaction to Miliband’s latest crazy announcement.
Hot on the heels of centralized energy pricing and the enforced break up private businesses (but absolutely not nationalization), Miliband has claimed credit for inventing an energy deal that has been in existence for years, well before Miliband’s appointment as Labour leader and which is a common default option for energy customers.
If that wasn’t bizarre enough he has announced his next target for bafflingly ineffective, counter productive and dangerous actions.
In his attempt to shore up the scant support (from reasoned individuals) for an ill thought through iron hand controlling private business, Miliband is now claiming his price freeze will be extended to businesses.
In a statement that took the bizarre to a whole new level, Miliband announced that his “business friendly” measure would save small businesses over £5,500 a year.
Quite a feat given that is an amount that is significantly higher than the average annual bill for an SME customer let alone a micro business customer.
The sheer irony of this position was completely lost on Miliband when he said
“The profiteering of the Big 6 has been at the expense of hardworking business people”
Quite when a business is hard-working and deserving of support and praise and when it is an evil empire beholden to profit is utterly unclear.
His commitments were however made to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), themselves a willing audience.
Indeed the FSB have actually called for the business energy market to mirror that of the domestic one. One of less choice, unified pricing and greater dominance of the Big 6.
Like his call for centralised pricing, it is clear where that ends: higher pricing, less switching, reduced competition, increased dissatisfaction.
Believing the madness couldn’t get worse Miliband also committed to:
- Banning roll over contracts
- Limiting back billing for more than one year
Noble and well intended indeed, if it was 2012.
But typically, Miliband appeared blithely unaware that the government, Energy UK and representatives of the business energy industry, including our CEO, had already achieved the above in their 2013 working group and within which the Big 6 have taken the lead of all the supply businesses.
Whilst it is easy to mock an unelectable party with an unelectable leader it is of huge concern that a major political party can so misunderstand an issue, mislead the unaware and effectively set out to undo all the hard work and ‘below the radar’ achievements of a select few for the wider business energy market.
Mr Miliband desperately needs a crash course in the energy markets before this car crash he currently resides over becomes uncontrollable.
Feel free to contact us any time Ed, we’re here for you so you might be here for UK business.