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Dear English Electricity

This interesting letter appeared in the Daily Telegraph in August, 2006, commenting on the way our fuel prices keep increasing:

    Sir - Most electricity companies including EDF Energy have increased electricity prices by about 30% since March. The French paper Le Figaro reported this month that EDF has increased electricity prices in France by 1.7 percent from August 15, after three years with no increases. Up to 2010, annual increases will be limited to the rate of inflation.

    This massive discrepancy between our two countries surely demands some explanation, as English consumers are at a huge disadvantage.

    Tony Larder

comment from ND - I can think of two reasons why our price rises are larger.

Firstly, France is 80% nuclear, so isn't affected much by the price of fossil fuels. In the UK, well- intentioned environmentalists and others have undermined our nuclear programme, ensuring our dependence on non-renewable energy, much of it imported.

Secondly, EDF is a French company, so I'd be surprised if we weren't subsidising French families by helping to pay their electricity bills.

We'll doing the same for Germany soon; Powergen and NPower are both German-owned.

Nigel Deacon

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