[wizzo227]

Last year we got some grumbles from an unfortunate old man who lived on his own in a big cold house, and was quite rightly worried about his heating bills. He'd had to retreat to one bedroom and one living room at the less cold end of his house. Turns out that he had twice the floor space and six times the exposed outdoor perimeter of my house. We have a housing crisis as well as an energy price crisis, so I rather meanly wrote back 'get a lodger'.

Now the winter fuel payments are in the news again. North Sea gas has been used up a bit more and now makes up about 40% of our heating gas (down a bit from last year). [can the supply desk at EoN give a more proper number for winter 24/25?]

Getting a lodger won't suit everyone, and you all have a while to plan ahead, for example for winter 2029-30 by which time there will be less gas from the North Sea, richer foreigners buying the alternatives, and more obviously prohibitive climate damages and feedbacks making new oil and gas exploration a more obviously terrible idea than at present. That is, even after you get a pay rise, burning more gas should not be an option. What does everyone plan to do ? Would any of you downsize as a planned way to Beat The Bills ?

[meldrewreborn]

@wizzo227

renter or owner? If the former and rental properties easily available then yes However if an owner how much do you think it costs to sell and buy? Better to just pay the bills and stay put.

[Andy65]

Personally speaking @wizzo227 I don't plan to do anything as I've always been in control of my usage and bills and so I'm fortunate in as much as the current prices are more of an annoyance than anything else.

Regarding the chap in his big house, there's a lot of unanswered questions such as how well insulated is the property, how old are the doors/windows, boiler etc. Presumably if he's confining himself to a few rooms and the bills are becoming a problem, then he doesn't have the funds to spend on the property.

The problem with getting a lodger is that they'd expect a reasonable level of heating, it's more rooms to heat with more doors opening and closing etc. Does the income from the lodger then get stripped back with the associated costs?

Downsizing is a logical approach but it depends on the condition of his current property, the location of where he is now and where he moves to etc. It's possible someone could downsize to a nice place and have significant cash in the bank after the fees have been paid. It's also possible that he could even struggle to break even or even make a loss, such as moving from a lesser area to a better one.

Whatever you do there's usually a financial cost to it, whether it's improving, upgrading, moving etc. The key to it is being able to analyse the options to suit your own situation, then manage it. It's surprising what can be saved from a usage point of view, replacing old appliances such as fridge/freezers can make a noticeable difference but it still requires expenditure.
I see no sense in downsizing to save money if a person has a habit of leaving all the lights on, the TV's on but you're not watching it etc.

[meldrewreborn]

@wizzo227

The amount of gas from the north sea is irrelevant in my view. Gas is traded internationally and North Sea gas is sold at the market price, which is why is now taxed very heavily. Following on from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and subsequent damage to gas pipelines, supply routes were impacted and the market readjusted. But the readjustment takes time, as LNG tankers are in high demand and you can't just magic them up out of nowhere. But new LNG fields are coming on stream around the world (a very big one in Western Australia) and with additional tankers the situation will stabilise even more. Who knows though what the demand side of the equation will do.

Recently attacks on the shipping heading for the Suez Canal has led to some ships being routed around Africa adding a week or more to their sailing time. These in effect reduce supply, and when supply is reduced the price goes up. We in the UK have not really been short of gas, its just that it costs a lot more than it did. The outlook is still far from clear.