Next month, your business will be able to select who supplies its clean and waste water services, and decide upon a package that’s right for your business.
News of the pending launch of the water retail market is set to increase over the coming days, with differences of opinion from all sides on the potential impact it will provide. As an example of how things could unfold, we can look at the Scottish market which deregulated in 2008, and also draw from experiences from the deregulation of the UK’s Energy market.
Ultimately, it will come down to individual circumstances, consumption profiles and the billing structure on existing accounts, and this will determine the advantages that can be achieved by deregulation. For some the initial savings will provide reason enough to switch, whereas for others the real value will come from bill analysis, retrospective recovery and switching.
Prior to businesses going to market, they should first of all fully understand their consumption and billing history as they can then align the best package for their needs. The starting point to obtain this information is to analyse your companies’ water bills, but with so many stories in the media around people being significantly over charged, there is no way of knowing the accuracy of this information.
Companies such as ourselves with honed skillsets and services specifically focussed on consumption and procurement, are a natural choice with regards to providing water solutions, and with over 40,000 clients we have a proven track record of utilising market intelligence and group purchasing to deliver successful procurement strategies.
But we are not in the business of simply switching people – our specialty is working alongside our clients as a utility partner, recommending and assisting the deployment of innovative technologies in addition to procurement continuation. With financing through to installation, our objective is to significantly reduce client consumption, and deliver an impressive sustainable cost reduction programme with an equally impressive return on investment.
Our advice:
Consider your options, get an accurate snap shot of your companies’ usage and then go to market. If you don’t have the time, the experience and there is no cost, why not let a company such as ourselves look into it for you?
We can advise on best practice, help achieve retrospective recovery of overpayments for a period of up to 6 years, and provide a choice of excellent water packages including: a Flexible, a 1 Year fixed, 2 Year Fixed or a 3 Year Fixed contracts. So whether you prefer to opt for budget certainty or would rather track the market – we have a water deal to suit your needs.
Whatever you decide – don’t stay static!
With less than a month to go, your competitors may already be testing the water, and have a head start.
According to the latest Energy UK switching data, there has been a 26% increase in the number of consumers changing their energy supply contracts last year – an all-time high since records started in 2013.
This is great news for consumers and demonstrates that it is becoming easier for consumers to switch and move onto a tariff, which is right for them.
It also highlights that some of the smaller and newer energy companies, are providing better incentives, with more competitive tariffs, than some of the traditional energy supply options.
Switching isn’t being widely adopted
However, whilst the signs are encouraging, there are still plenty of us out there, (over 20 million, according to Vickie Sheriff, Campaigns & Communications Director at Which?) that are on some of the most expensive tariffs, and are paying over the odds for the supply of their energy.
Are you one of the 20 million? Find out if you’re on the best available tariff today!
With the holiday season well and truly over, attention now turns to the impending change at the top of US Politics.
On the 20th of January, Mr Donald Trump will be officially sworn in as 45th President of the United States marking the end of Mr Barack Obama’s leadership.
There were no strong moves on Financial Markets towards the end of 2016, however since the start of 2017 we have seen sustained increases on indices like FTSE 100 and Dow Jones, both reaching record peaks, thanks to recent employment reports and a falling Sterling. GET the full report here
2017 see’s upturn in oil prices
We ended 2016 with the announcement from OPEC of a production cut that would also involve some non OPEC countries, sending Oil Prices north after what had been a testing 2016 for the commodity.
2017 looks like it will see a return of a normal pricing structure for Oil, although it is unlikely that we will see a return to anything above $100/bl.
The fate of Oil prices throughout the year may be decided within the first two months of this year, it is vitally important that we see the Production Cut implemented as agreed and that all parties stick to this historic agreement. GET the full report here
Plunging temperatures raise gas prices
It is Gas Prices that will be under the microscope for the next few days, with a cold snap looming and reports of significant amounts of snow on the way, indications look like it will be 5 degrees colder than seasonal norms throughout Britain and Northern Europe. GET the full report here
Predicted decline in electricity costs
Despite rising Oil and Gas Prices, Electricity offers continue to edge their way down from the peaks of Early November. Prices were at such a high level that it was inevitable that prices would decrease. The issues in France with their Nuclear Reactors have eased, with availability being increased as the days go by. GET the full report here
In Summary:
It may be best to exercise a certain degree of patience when it comes to Gas and Electricity Offers over the next week, with temperatures set to drop we may see Day Ahead and Front Month offers increase steadily. GET the full report here
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers, suppliers and partners for your continued support over the past 12 months, and to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
With all the political and economic changes happening around the globe, impacting financial markets both favourably and detrimentally, 2016 has certainly been a challenge!
These influences look set to continue during 2017 and this makes our unique cost reduction programmes all the more relevant. Our services are free to clients, so it makes perfect sense to ensure you have the best packages in place to mitigate the impact of market fluctuations upon your business.
We’ve added some fantastic cost saving services and technologies to our portfolio which include:
Also, with just over 4 months to go until deregulation of the water market, now really is the time for businesses to prepare. We’ll provide a FREE water audit to identify incorrect charges and retrospective overpayments of up to 6 years. We can recover any overcharges on your behalf. A recent school project achieved a £2,000 rebate and an annual saving of over £7,000 per year.
We can also provide recommendations ahead of April 2017 when all businesses will have the opportunity to switch water provider and potentially realise a saving on their bills.
With offices now operating in Scotland, Ireland, Australia and Asia, we’re enjoying global as well as national growth. We are looking forward to an exciting 2017 together with you, our valued customers and partners.
French September Nuclear power is at its lowest output level since August 1998, after it was reported nuclear power stations were at risk of catastrophic failure. This failure centres around the Vessel and its Cap, as high levels of carbon are produced, making the steel framework brittle.
Yesterday a report was produced by Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire (French ASN) providing an additional 5 sites that require testing within the next 3 Months, limiting output in that time. A total of 7 sites are currently being tested, limiting output further.
The French fuel mix is completely different to ours, as 75% of their mix relies on Nuclear Power. This places a huge burden on the French Power system limiting interconnector flows between France and the UK, to which imports account for roughly 6% of electricity available in the UK.
Also Coal Prices continue their rise, with Newcastle Contracts trading at $102.2/ton, its highest level since April 2012. The downward correction in temperatures over the next week is also pushing prices up, with the expectation of demand being significantly higher than seasonal norms.
Water regulator postpones new connection charging rules
In order to provide more time for English water companies to consult and respond to feedback before final new connection charging rules are implemented, Ofwat has postponed the framework which was due to be implemented in April 2017.
The charging rules, which are now intended for introduction in April 2018, are for new connection services to developers and customers for: connections to water mains and public sewers, new water mains, public sewers and lateral drains, and pipe diversions.
The decision to postpone was taken after consultation, where stakeholders deemed that current arrangements are “too complex, unpredictable and unfair.”
The regulator has expressed the new rules will be published later this year. They are expected to “provide a more flexible charging framework, reduce arbitrary differences in companies’ implementation and permit companies to introduce innovative tariffs.”
Deregulation of the water industry occurs in April 2017, which will allow consumers to switch their water contracts in much the same way as they currently do with energy contracts.
Prior to April 2017, it is recommended that consumers audit their water account. Firstly, to check they are currently being billed correctly and ensure any new tariff accurately represents their usage and, secondly, if they may be entitled to recover any overpayments for a period going back up to 6 years.
Friday 30th September was a good day for policy makers, figures released from the Office of National Statistics showed an expansion of 0.4% in July for the UK’s service sector; a sector that makes up the bulk of the UK GDP, forcing a revision of the Q2 GDP figure to 0.7% from 0.6%.
This figure does show that post Brexit; consumer’s mind-set did not change; it may also point to the consistently warm temperatures we experienced during July. This figure however, was forgotten as the weekend wore on with the announcement from Prime Minister, Mrs Theresa May, that Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty was to be invoked, therefore getting the British ‘divorce’ from Europe underway by March 2017.
This will do little to help the value of the British Pound, which has been under significant downward pressure for some time, losing over 11% against the Euro since the referendum result. In turn, this effects our Gas Prices, forcing them upwards as we import a chunk of our Gas supply from the continent.
Gas Prices are also very reliant upon Oil Prices, which have finally broken the $50 /bl mark after the OPEC Meeting last week, the announcement that a production cap was on its way was aided by a reduction in US Crude Oil inventories of 1.9m barrels, forcing a rise of $3 /bl.
More increases were limited after the Baker Hughes Rig count showed an increase of 35 rigs in North America to 684, however it is important to note that year on year that figure is down by 287 – a sharp reminder of how damaging low Oil prices have been over the course of 2016.
Electricity offers have been extremely volatile over the last few days, with a number of suppliers pulling their matrices. Whilst we can look to increases in the Gas and Oil Markets for a portion of the blame we must also turn our heads towards the continent and see what is going on with European Electricity Prices.
Due to lack of availability at its nuclear sites, French Power offers surged to a 13 Month High, having a knock on effect with other European Electricity offers.
A number of nuclear sites with steam generators in France are under investigation after reactor pressure vessels and their caps, contain a very high level of carbon, forcing the steel framework to potentially become brittle. These investigations may cause outages and disruptions as there is a potential for catastrophe, if the issues are not rectified quickly and correctly.
As a result, our Electricity offers are nearing a backwardation level and have increased violently over the last week or so, with an increase of 11.53 £/MwH or 26.92% over the last 9 days as can be seen on the graph below:
When in a rising market it is important to note that urgent action is needed at some point, therefore it is not advised to bury heads in the sand and wait for the ‘storm’ to pass. Take action and but please keep an eye on the market.
To protect your utility costs from rising markets, contact us
Don’t be stung by rising energy costs this winter. You could save an impressive £204* by March 2017 by simply switching your energy supply through our GET Rewards Switching site. So why not start saving today?
With a growing number of UK household’s struggling with rising energy costs this winter period, we’ll make sure you’re not left out in the cold. Our Domestic Switching site scouts the market and generates the lowest prices in the UK.
Customers using our domestic service over the last sixty days have saved an average of £257.97** per annum with a maximum saving of £2,763.
*£204 saving by March 2017 is provided by Flow Energy available on our switching site. **All figures provided are correct at the time of being published.
Create your own Gas and Electricity Personal Projection
GET Solutions are aiding the protection of trees in the rainforest against illegal loggers and ranchers by drinking coffee!
We’ve been in partnership with Cool Earth through 2015/16 and are extremely proud to announce that we’ve protected 202 Tree’s with 219 tonnes of CO2 locked in.
As straight forward as it sounds, this has been achieved through simply drinking coffee! Our daily consumption of coffee has kept the whole office a lot more awake and greener at the same time.
Cool Earth aren’t just a coffee provider, they thrive on achieving a better future for the environment. Their main aim is to halt rainforest destruction that’s at a major threat from loggers by working alongside indigenous villages.
One Cool Earth project is the Lubutu project which involves working with five villages in eastern DR Congo to form a buffer for two neighbouring national parks. This project alone has sheltered 6.710 species of animal and protected 19 endangered species.
Click here to see our certificate. Not only is this another success story for our company, it makes us feel a lot less guilty about having that extra cup of coffee during a long working day!
As the dust starts to settle from the result of the ‘Brexit’ vote, we are now starting to see the potential implications of the outcome. Opinion polls leading towards the referendum showed a clear lead for the remain camp, pushing a notable bookmaker to offer odds of 1/8 that the UK would decide to remain in the European Union on the morning of the vote. It is clear that the result sent ripples around the world’s financial markets.
The political implications are also being felt, with the Conservative Party seeking a replacement for Prime Minister Mr David Cameron, Labour Leader Mr Jeremy Corbyn under pressure to resign from his position and Nigel Farage stepping down from UKIP. This uncertainty and what ‘Brexit’ means for the UK initially affected banking stocks such as Barclays Plc and Lloyds Banking Group Plc and impacted on the British Pound, with Sterling falling against the US Dollar. Resultantly gas prices sharply increased with many Price Matrices being pulled on the Friday.
It is fair to say that once the markets digested the news of the vote and had time to act rationally, markets recovered will enough to claw back the losses of the previous days. The world waited in anticipation to the words of Mr Martin Carney, Governor of the Bank of England on Thursday, as his important words were needed to steady the markets. With a clear sign of a resurgence in expansionary monetary policy, hinting at a cut in interest rates in the summer and a rollout of quantitative easing. Markets rebounded whilst he was making his speech, as essentially they are trading with cheaper money. A side effect of quantitative easing is devaluation, and since June 23rd, the British Pound has lost ground against the US Dollar and the Euro, which can be seen on the below graph:
This influenced UK Gas Prices – due to a fall in the British Pound, imports from the continent increased, whereas exports to the continent became cheaper. As we import a significant amount from the continent, our Gas prices therefore increased, which led to suppliers initially pulling their prices until they could keep pace with the opening volatility.
In truth, gas and electricity prices have been rising for some time, as it is directly linked to Oil Prices – recently the Saudi Energy Minister and the Secretary General of OPEC announced that the global market was heading towards a balance triggering a boost for commodity that has risen by 80% since its low point in February. We can see on the below graphs, how both the Gas and Oil Prices have evolved since April:
At this point it is hard to envisage what is going to happen next with the uncertainty within the Political sphere, as we step towards finding a new Prime Minister who can lead the UK through these uncertain times. Perhaps the biggest hurdle is to steady the UK Economy and avoid a possible recession, Chancellor Mr George Osbourne is looking to cut UK Corporation Tax to 15% by 2019 to attract more overseas investment.
The next few weeks and months will prove to be incredibly unpredictable, it remains to be seen if Gas and Electricity prices will continue to rise further, but it may prove better to expect increases in the short term. During such periods of unpredictability, the timing of gas and electric procurement is more important than ever and this in conjunction with group buying power and expert industry knowledge is key to securing key best possible rates.
To protect your utility costs from fluctuating markets, contact us
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