Standing Charge Cut.

We have been wondering whether or not to request a gas disconnection to our property during the summer months  - if no service exists at the property, then no service charge can apply. We would then re-apply for a re connection in October.

The standing charge needs to stay in place or the less well off people in this country will end up paying higher bills whilst the wealthy benefit from lower bills.

Not certain about that. The standing charge effectively more than doubles the price per unit for the smaller and presumably poorer user.

For the larger and presumably better of user the standing charge is a small addition to the price per unit.

A small user is in effect paying as much as 60 pence a unit with a larger user paying about 35 pence a unit.

I see it the other way round. The problem with a high standing charge (mine has nearly doubled recently) is that, for poor people, no matter how much they cut back and economise they still have to pay the full standing charge - i.e. it's something they have no control over.

They are already doing that to subsidize all those daft wind farms for the rich.

I was told that the gas supplier has to cut you off with underground pipe disconnection rather than just installing a disc in the service pipe, to prevent theft. There may be a cost involved. Have you enquired whj?

Why does the standing charge need to go up when the price of fuel rises?

Isn't that like the road fund licence going up because fuel price has increased?

SOME increase in the standing charge is understandable since PART of the standing charge is to pay for the iron losses and copper losses in the distribution system and cost of these losses has increased.

However the other costs such as labour and capital cost of materials have not in creased by as much.

OFGEM (or whoever it is these days) impose a price cap on both the unit rate and the standing charge. When they raised both recently, most suppliers immediately raised their standard tariffs to the new limit for both rate and standing. It's an economic decision rather than a necessarily fair one.

Wealthy people can afford to become prosumers and reduce the amount of electricity they use from the grid, but will want the power stations and generation running with the networks maintained whilst they are not using electricity from the grid in case there’s an issue with their own onsite generation or it’s insufficient.

The less well off are dependent on using electricity from the grid.

The way forward is to increase the standing charge and reduce the actual cost of consumption from the grid.