A Licence to Print Money

1st August 2014

Ofgem has today set out its proposed price control settlements for five of the six companies that run Britain's local electricity network, which transports energy into homes and businesses.

www.ofgem.gov.uk/press-releases/ofgem-announces-£17-billion-electricity-network-and-cuts-bills-consumers

Ecotricity founder Dale Vince wrote to Ofgem over 18 months ago highlighting the incredible profits being made by these electricity distribution companies that operate as a monopoly.

Here is his response to Ofgems proposals:

Ecotricity founder Dale Vince said: "The whole set-up with the electricity distribution companies is wrong for consumers - they are monopolies that are privately owned, mainly by foreign banks and pension funds, charging Britons to use infrastructure that we used to own and generations of us paid to build in the first place.

"Much of this money from our energy bills now leaves Britain to pay dividends to mostly foreign shareholders instead of being reinvested in better networks and services.

"Ecotricity wrote to the regulator Ofgem 18 months ago highlighting the incredible level of profits these wire companies were making, 50% before tax, and the massive dividends being paid to mostly foreign shareholders. It's been a licence to print money.

“Along with the Big Six and more recently some independent energy suppliers, they've been running rings around Ofgem since privatisation.

“This new settlement may reduce the profiteering, but the proof of that and whether this really is a better deal for consumers and for Britain, will be whether those huge profits and dividend payments continue in the years to come, only time will tell.

"The real solution though is not a periodic haggle with these distribution companies, but taking the sector back into public ownership. Privatisation has simply failed to deliver."