The dirty lucre of British Gas

You don’t by any chance work for British Gas do you? Or a PR agency employed by them? It reads like you do. And if you do, or know someone close to you who does, it’s a little deceptive not to make that clear in your comment. And if you don’t, then I really do not understand your choice of defending a profiteering business when there are far worthier causes to champion.

To address your points:

Yes, the state pension isn’t much but the answer isn’t to provide more taxpayers’ money only for that money to then be transferred to the coffers of British Gas; rather British Gas shouldn’t charge so much, shouldn’t make so much, and then taxpayers’ money could go to not only improving the living standards of the elderly in general and not only keeping them warm but well-fed and given excellent health care. Our money doesn’t go to government to let private companies off the hook–which is why there’s such a stink over Northern Rock.

if British Gas don’t make enough of the positive things they do, I am very surprised. They certainly have enough profits to spend some of them on public relations companies of the highest calibre, along with media campaigns and awareness-raising.

Free loft insulation, with all due respect, is like throwing a feather into a fart-storm: it is hardly the answer to rocketing bills, somewhat redundant as offers go given that most houses today already have loft insulation, and, on top of that, it would be easy for a company such as British Gas with all that lolly sloshing around to send representatives out to senior citizen customers to offer them in person the loft insulation. What, are 70-year-olds supposed to go through an automated phone system and be passed from one line to another to get this miserly offer, in just the same way as any other customers do when trying to make a complaint or even make a basic enquiry? Please.

And why 70 when retirement ages start at 60? And what of the disabled and others on low incomes?

No, British Gas is not the only company making a profit and there’s nothing wrong in making a profit providing it isn’t done so by hiking prices year after year after year, and to such a massive extent and huge monetary gain. As British Gas makes such almighty profits, it could plough at least half of those into renewable energy development, discounts and rebates for the vulnerable, and providing all-round better service to all its customers.

You’re not telling me the majority of that £571m is going to green energy research. If you are, I do not for one second believe you. Improve customer experience? Come off it–how many decades has British Gas had to do that, are we to believe it has now turned a corner and we can expect first-class and courteous service?

Businesses are meant to make profits, yes, but not all by any means. There are non-profits, and there are co-operatives that plough everything back into the business. And then there are companies that recognise much more than British Gas that they have a social responsibility, and this costs money.

Tesco’s is a bad example, hardly an ethical company as you make clear in your comment, in the way it treats farmers and promotes cruel farming practices to ensure cheap chicken on the shelves. But even with that in mind, you are wrong–they have a value range, as do all supermarkets, which is cheaper if not necessarily always wholesome or desirable. But does British Gas have a value tariff of cheaper gas and electricity? If so, sign us all up! Of course it doesn’t.

The only thing people who can’t afford the bills get is the occasional offer to spread the cost, that is, to maintain perpetual and rising levels of debt.