Rising energy costs aren’t a joke, I’ve already changed my lifestyle

I was expecting it, of course, but the increase in my energy bill still shocked me into making some changes about the way I live, writes Christine Manby

(Illustration by Tom Ford)

I’ve just received an email from my gas provider reminding me that my direct debit payment is going up this month, to more than twice what it has been for the past year. They assure me I’m still on the right tariff and I couldn’t get my gas anywhere else for less – I’ve checked and they’re right – but all the same, the price rise is a shock. Doubly so given that so far I haven’t received any free socks, such as those sent to the customers of Eon who took part in an energy-saving initiative last year.

Those quite astonishingly ugly Eon-branded socks have, understandably, caused outrage. I think most people would rather have had the fiver it took to make and send them to buy some socks they might actually want to wear. Plain navy blue ones, for example. Likewise, OVO, the energy company that suggested their customers could stay warm and save money by cuddling pets and doing star jumps rather than by turning up the heating, might have done better to divert the money they spent on that bit of PR into a customer discount. How many star jumps does it take to off-set a 100 per cent price hike? I hope somebody is working on an app for that. I suspect it would be hard to hold down a full-time job and fit in enough PE to save a single kilowatt hour.