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Was the privatisation of the electricity network worth it?

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In this week’s Gossage Gossip, our columnist asks an important question that may be on everyone’s lips right now – was the privatisation of the electricity network really worth it?

From this month, every single household in Britain paying electricity bills by direct debit is being charged using the standard variable tariff. Each kWh will cost about 29.3p. Each standing charge will be around 38p per day. Switching to another supplier will not change this pricing structure. And in October these charges will increase – substantially. Ofgem has spoken.

Older readers will recall that when electricity was publicly owned, prices charged by Area Boards also did not vary. The only difference now is that all the money is paid out to those companies in the cartel that had deep enough pockets to hedge against rising gas prices last autumn. We need to be asking ourselves, after all that, was electricity privatisation really worth the upheaval?

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