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Cold comfort from the energy firms' apologist in chief
The energy industry inflicts a Byzantine web of tariffs on its customers, so its calls for transparency are a bit rich.
Angela Knight seems to enjoy making herself unpopular.
As chief executive of the British Bankers' Association, she described the furore surrounding bankers' bonuses as a "witch hunt" and explained that we had to pay stratospheric sums to those in the financial services industry so as not to lose them to other countries where they are more relaxed about the number of zeros to a pay packet.
Now she has left the Liborlight, sorry, limelight, you would think that she would go for a job that involved speaking out for a group that is hard to vilify – fluffy kittens, perhaps, or the veterans standing at the nations' stations and high streets selling poppies this week.
But no. As the weather turned colder last week, and we began, reluctantly, to turn up our expensive heating, Ms Knight made her first speech at the Energy UK annual lunch.
Yes, that's right, she is the new chief executive of Energy UK, which represents the interests of the "Big Six" energy companies. While the faces of Phil Bentley, the British Gas managing director, and his ilk may not grace as many dartboards as Bob Diamond & Co at present, that may well change when we all get our next energy bills.
At well over £1,200, the annual price of heating and lighting our homes is now the biggest outgoing for many households. The latest round of price rises pushed up the average bill by around £90 a year. So what was the energy industry's Knight in shining armour giving as her first message to us freezing supplicants? Scarcely tidings of comfort and joy. She would like us to know that the rising prices are not her companies' fault.
"The proportion of our bills that is made up of the electricity and gas that we consume is falling," she said. "The rest of the bill is made up of other elements, many of which are outside the control of the energy companies. These include network charges and the increasing cost of public policies such as environmental and social obligations."
Ms Knight wants us all to know exactly how much of the price rise is due to regulation, so we can all see just how much it is not the fault of the energy companies that the slanket will be the must-have accessory this season in cash-strapped and chilly homes across the nation.
"All authorities involved in the energy agenda need to step up to the table of honesty and transparency," she said, complaining that debates about the future of our energy supply "will be continuing behind closed and not-so-closed doors".
Transparency, hey? Surely, Angela, you are representing a set of businesses that are having to be forced by their regulator to give up on their Byzantine web of tariffs and charges that mean that no ordinary home owner has a hope of comparing Fix and Fall Fizzle Tariff A16 with Autosaver Freezy Fix Tariff 67b (OK, I've made those up, but they aren't far off), so calling for transparency from others is a bit rich.
Perhaps knowing exactly how much of our eye-watering energy bills is going to warming the cockles of Mr Bentley's heart, and how much is helping bring in new green schemes, really will make us light up – but I should imagine Ms Knight's words will be cold comfort for most.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/p...-in-chief.html
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