I am sure the latest “official” statistics which show the “typical”
Scottish household energy bill to be only £9 per month more than those in
England are a serious underestimation (“Scots spend £9 more on energy”, The
Herald, March 4).
Highlands and Islands Enterprise’s minimum income standard research
published in July 2013 showed home energy costs varying between a minimum
of 26% and an extreme maximum of 184% higher than in an English rural town.
The latter figure was for a single person in the Northern Isles.
Ofgem, the regulator, has recently changed its statistical base but still
insists on using a “weighted” figure for what they call a “typical dual
fuel customer”. Many in Scotland are off the gas grid and reliant solely on
electricity. The higher consumption necessary here because of our
significantly colder climate and much longer heating season together with
the levying of noticeably higher distribution costs make the Ofgem figures
largely meaningless. Much simpler regional figures from Ofgem showing the
total amount spent on electricity divided by the total number of customers
involved would be more helpful to give us, and the Government, a true
picture of how the cost is crippling Scotland.
Thanks to the greater transparency being shown by the industry, the public
now have internet access to research papers published by SSE (Scottish
Hydro Electric). In his June 2013 paper entitled “Paying for government
policies: electric heating customers”, Dr Richard Westoby, director of
Retail Economics, reveals that customers with electric heating pay a
significantly higher and disproportionate amount towards the Government
eco-schemes. He goes further and says that “towards 30% of the off-peak
element of a typical electric heating tariff” is required to cover these costs.
That explains, at long last, why Scottish Hydro’s Total Heating Total
Control (THTC) tariff has been going up by so much more than the quoted
average for the last five price rises. It is worrying that SSE is the last
of the “Big Six” energy suppliers to reduce tariffs following the
Government’s change of heart announced on December 2. May THTC consumers
expect that their tariffs should now go down considerably, please?
RJ Ardern,
26A Southside Road,
Inverness.
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