Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

ft.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 259 posts

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#111

Post by ck425 »

LatteLazy wrote: post #79
breckenedge wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since this is also related to higher energy prices, do you think the invasion on Ukraine is also a contributing factor? Although if that were the case, we’d also see as high of inflation in other European countries?

It's definitely a contributing factor. The thing is, other nations just have to deal with high gas prices. The UK has to deal with high prices AND: * being reliant on gas for both heat and power * a collapsing pound driving prices higher in local currency * no supply guarantee since we left the EU (we are now "at the end of the pipe") * some of the most energy inefficient housing in Europe after decades of not invest…

I'm curious, do we actually have higher taxes than most other countries and if so in which specific areas?

Personally a well paid individual no dependants I find the Tory focus on cutting taxes ridiculous but I'm aware I'm ignorant of how we compare to other countries.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#112

Post by TacticalCoder »

trgn wrote: post #71
TrackerFF wrote: post #20

Hopefully the current energy crisis (in Europe) will further accelerate development in renewable energy. Seems much of Europe is still chained to LNG, and that demand is even wreaking havoc in countries which have been previously quite self-sustained, or really don't use LNG much themselves - with Norway being a good example.

Europe is going to come out strong out of this whole mess. The political unity so quickly after the start of the war was unexpected (and admirable). Ten years from now, Europeans will drive electric (if they'll drive at all), solar panels will be everywhere, and the continued flex-work-from-home revolution will have created an enormous amount of extra time for everybody. They'll be comfy in their sustainable homes an…

> Ten years from now, Europeans will drive electric (if they'll drive at all)

Most cars sold in Europe aren't electric: only 13%. Average car life in Europe is 11 years or something like that. So, no, ten years from now Europeans won't be all driving electric, far from it. Also something like 2/3rd of all europeans live in suburbs or rural: so, yes, they'll still be driving (or using horses). People enjoying the public transports in cities are a minority.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#113

Post by Reason077 »

data_maan wrote: post #47

Three things: 1 Renewables: The solution exists already but no gov't (in particular the UK) is implementing it: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/100%25_renewable_energy 2 The UK gov't rather is arresting people demonstrating for housing insulation. This is probably the dumbest thing a gov't can do, since insulation is a "bipartisan" issue and everybody would profit from it. 3 On top of this the UK is on the verge of p…

> "Renewables: The solution exists already but no gov't (in particular the UK) is implementing it"

The UK govt has done better than most on renewables in the past decade. Wind energy in particular. In 2020, wind power supplied 24.8% of all UK electricity, and this will continue to increase as major new wind farms - some of the largest in the world - come online in the coming years:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_power_in_the_United_Kingd...

The UK grid should begin to have periods of 100% fossil-free generation by 2025:

https://www.nationalgrideso.com/news/great-britain-track-per...

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#114

Post by ak_111 »

yrgulation wrote: post #68
throwaway22032 wrote: post #54

We should probably ban loads of our low paid workers from entering the country, print a load of money and give it to people, tell the remaining workers to stay at home, change all of our working practices so that they don't match our infrastructure, and unilaterally sever trade with partners that sell us energy. What could possibly go wrong?

"ban loads of our low paid workers" wait until you learn how much lower people are getting paid now that they depend on a work visa. hint: a lot less than europeans coming in pre-brexit.

You need to factor in the cost of training them and their quality of service. For example European drivers usually have better English skills or have worked in similar coffee shops before, used to driving in Europe, familiar with cleaning and construction regulations, ...

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#115

Post by Hnrobert42 »

rvieira wrote: post #46
Symbiote wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why have you converted the temperatures to Fahrenheit? It hasn't been used in BBC weather forecasts in Britain since the 1960s.

People living in the UK already know the north is chilly, no need to quantify it. I have the impression that the overwhelming majority of HN is from the US, and "chilly" can mean different things depending where you're from.

As an American on holiday in the UK, I appreciate the Fahrenheit.

My impression of the readership is that it depends on the time of day. When I was in Vietnam, I would wake up to US centric posts full of comments. When I wake up early on the East Coast of the US (~6:30 am) I see more comments from Europe/UK. By mid afternoon, most of the posters seem to be from the US or at least the Americas.

I base this on about 5 years of daily HN reading. I infer the posters’ locations from spelling, grammar, but most often their own admission. Nonetheless, this is just anecdata.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#116

Post by scrlk »

LatteLazy wrote: post #79
breckenedge wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since this is also related to higher energy prices, do you think the invasion on Ukraine is also a contributing factor? Although if that were the case, we’d also see as high of inflation in other European countries?

It's definitely a contributing factor. The thing is, other nations just have to deal with high gas prices. The UK has to deal with high prices AND: * being reliant on gas for both heat and power * a collapsing pound driving prices higher in local currency * no supply guarantee since we left the EU (we are now "at the end of the pipe") * some of the most energy inefficient housing in Europe after decades of not invest…

> no supply guarantee since we left the EU (we are now "at the end of the pipe")

If anything, the UK is at the head of the pipe with regards to European LNG imports: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-26/britain-n...

I just hope that both sides are sensible: Europe is relying on UK LNG terminals to import gas; the UK is relying on European storage facilities.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#117

Post by mathverse »

Latty wrote: post #98
mathverse wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with the approach of "tax this and tax that" is that it often ends up hurting the lower and middle classes the most. I am very skeptical about any new taxes aiming for wealth distribution that are not very explicit about who should pay that tax.

Yes? That's why I was very specific about who should pay it. This is such a common response to any taxation. It is true that any solution done wrong can make things worse, but that's not a reason not to try and solve the problem, it's a reason to do it right. The alternative, not taxing anyone much, has been tried: it gets us here, with public services collapsing and the country becoming less and less desirable to ex…

I have not seen this done correctly anywhere. I have only experienced taxes getting higher and higher with nothing much to show for it. Meanwhile the really rich folk are also getting richer.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#118

Post by tialaramex »

missedthecue wrote: post #66
TrackerFF wrote: post #20

Hopefully the current energy crisis (in Europe) will further accelerate development in renewable energy. Seems much of Europe is still chained to LNG, and that demand is even wreaking havoc in countries which have been previously quite self-sustained, or really don't use LNG much themselves - with Norway being a good example.

The problem for europe is that solar panels, windfarms, and nuclear power plants don't produce natural gas. Electricity is great, but it's not a replacement for natural gas by itself. In Germany, only 25% of natgas usage is accounted for by electricity production.

It isn't difficult to synthesise methane (which is what natural gas is). You "just" need lots of energy. If the problem was "Even if we have plenty of electricity, how will we get methane?" the answer is you just synthesise it. Right now Europe's problem is keeping the lights on and their people alive in the coming winter.

Like many European countries, it is usual to heat German homes with gas boilers. You could (and if we don't want even worse climate change, must) replace those with electrical heating, most likely heat pumps with resistive backup. A heat pump doesn't care whether the electricity powering it is from a solar panel or a wind farm or what.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#119

Post by satysin »

LatteLazy wrote: post #3

A Mix of Brexit, an aging population, massive underinvestment in basically everything, covid mishandling and huge debt means the UK is around year 0 of a lost decade. I will leave if I can.

I moved from the UK to [redacted]. While I could not predict the pandemic nor the war in Ukraine I did expect things to get worse in the UK post-Brexit which is why when the UK voted to leave back in 2016 my wife and I started planning to move. It took a couple of years to get things all sorted and we moved in August 2018.

We are actually back in the UK this week visiting family who asked if we miss living here and my wife and I just looked at each other and said "nope!" in unison. It is hard to explain it in a short post here but the UK just doesn't feel "like home" to me anymore.

I am not saying [redacted] is perfect. But our quality of life is much higher in [redacted] than it was in the UK and we are both very happy we followed through and moved.

Re: UK inflation forecast to hit 18.6% next year, energy bills may rise to £6000

#120

Post by jongjong »

evandijk70 wrote: post #73
jongjong wrote: post #44

I've been whining about how unjust and non-meritocratic the current economy has been for the last 5 years and look at that... These insane inflation numbers are proving me right. I'm quite sure the inflation will continue too. My detractors were in fact gaslighting me the whole time, as I suspected. The people at the top today are incompetent and lack principles. No better than the corrupt dictators of uncivilized na…

Why are these numbers proving you right? Those people that made an decision to transition to a sustainable lifestyle by: - Isolate their house and/or live in a small, well isolated apartment - Buy solar panels and a heatpump. - Save gas by wearing an extra sweater and setting the thermostat a bit lower. are affected far less by this massive inflation. Of course, for the 37% in the UK that do not own a house (probably…

Inflation means that currency is losing value. That's what happens when people receive money that they don't deserve (I.e. they didn't actually provide an equivalent amount of value back to society); it ends up devaluing the currency. IMO, what we're seeing is the tip of the iceberg. It just took some time for reality to catch up. If I'm right, inflation will only get worse because the mis-allocation of resources only seems to have become worse. I'm not seeing any improvement - I'm seeing people doubling down on bad decisions; people with money appear to be increasingly erratic. I'm not seeing anyone adjusting their strategy.
Post reply on HN