If you needed more proof that the our private-run energy sector is failing workers, service users and future energy security the last week must have provided it.
It started with one of the big six energy suppliers, Npower, announcing large losses and that they plan to reduce the workforce by 2400. The workers and unions are still in the dark as to where the company plans these job cuts to hit and when. It could include workers for other companies who work on behalf of Npower. Npower is doing particularly badly due to poor consumer service and failed outsourcing.
But the problems at Npower are repeated across the industry. The whole structure created at privatisation was a byzantine mess designed to give the illusion of competition over the delivery of identical electricity and gas to the home. At the same time the private companies were unwilling or unable to make the massive investment needed to move their processes and systems into the modern age. High prices and poor service have become the universal complaint.
At the same time the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) reported that service users are being overcharged by £1.7 billion a year. The CMA highlight that the poorest and most vulnerable customers get the worst deal as they often end up being forced on to pre-payment meters that charge more per unit of energy and do not provide any security of supply if you run out of money or the corner shop is shut.
So did the CMA judge that pre-payment meters should be got rid of? Did the CMA call for the nationalisation of energy? No, their recommendations amounted to minor tinkering with fixing pre-payment energy prices and more bizarrely giving more customer information to the energy industry. According to the CMA, if 37 energy companies can send you junk mail it will fix a fundamentally broken and flawed sector.
On the generation side too we saw more signs that social need and corporate greed do not mix. The government's plan for a new nuclear power station at Hinckley Point look in jeopardy. The Chief Financial Officer of EDF, who are planning to building the plant, felt compelled to resign for pointing out that EDF do not have the resources to privately build a new generation nuclear plant. Instead of the state investing in the nuclear power needed to keep the lights on the government has left it to the market. This strategy is unravelling before our eyes.
Jeremy Corbyn stood for leadership of the Labour Party promising to take energy into public ownership. Since he won the leadership these promises have gone quiet. The entire labour movement and beyond need to be fighting for the public ownership of energy but under democratic and workers control. That is the only way to eradicate fuel poverty and provide secure, clean and carbon neutral energy.