So what’s the breakdown of your standing charges, how much is your electricity standing charge and how much is your gas standing charge?
And even if Elsie’s standing charge was the same as yours before the rise £12.98 including VAT, if her bill only came to £17 that would mean she only spent £4 on her actual gas and electricity usage, do you really believe that.
The issue remains:
Omg they’re one and the same thing, your energy bill includes the standing charge.
If her supplier is now asking her for £85 instead of £17, that will include the standing charge.
I believe that you are finding the figures confusing and that you are trying to confuse me with your interpretation of the figures that you have latched on to.
No, they’re not.
As you’ve pointed out, even the SC is composed of two different elements:
I’ve flagged this thread due to Omah altering what I’ve said in post 106.
The real issue is the awful response by Dorris.
I’m finding this confusing, too - here, you say “£12” not “£17”
Additionally, this article says that Elsie lives in a council flat not “a Band F house”:
but this article says “council house”:
See My post 25:
Boris didn’t ask if Elsie was real, have just watched it again, watch from 11.01. And sorry I got it wrong her energy bills have gone from £17 to £85 a month, but what I said still stands.
And it doesn’t matter whether it’s a flat or a house, it’s the Band F bit that’s important.
> F £120,000-£160,000
I don’t think that a valuation of £160,000 indicates a substantial property in London.
You really should read the links you post, thought everybody knew the tax bands were from valuations years ago. From your link:
It’s calculated based on the value of your property at a specific point in time. For instance, in England your council tax band is based on what the value of your property would have been on 1 April 1991.
Fair point … 
Nevertheless, £160,000 wouldn’t have bought much in the 1990’s - a terraced or semi-detached property in Wandsworth perhaps:
I feel sorry for Elsie - she seems to be copping a lot of blame from some folk just for speaking up about her fuel bills - assumptions made over her Council Tax Banding and being criticised for that - and now she is being accused of lying about the price she has been paying for her energy bills!
We don’t even know the woman, do we know where she lives, what her situation is, whether she has both gas and electric or just electric and do we know what energy tariff she was on before? If not, we really don’t know whether the figures quoted are feasible or not.
My own energy costs went up a massive amount at the end of March, not just because of the price cap increases but also because they coincided with the expiry of a previous fixed tariff, which was a lot cheaper than the variable tariff has been this last year or two.
If Elsie had previously had a long term fixed “low user” electricity tariff with low standing charge, as a lady I know had, then it’s possible that she was paying only £17 pm before. I wouldn’t like to accuse her of lying without knowing more about her situation.
Can’t really see what you’re getting at.
Council Tax bands go from A-H.
That means that wherever she lives people who are living in band, a, b, c, d, and e properties are living in smaller properties than she does. She lives all on her own and there will be families who live in much much smaller properties than she is living in.
There are only two bands above her band.
And that’s why I said, was what Elsie said, fact checked.
AFAIK, it’s not only size which determines the council tax valuation:
Council Tax band assessments
The VOA assesses properties to ensure that they’re in the correct Council Tax band. They automatically assess some properties, for example when a property has been made smaller or when a property is newly built. The VOA also assesses properties when asked to do so, such as during a Council Tax appeal or band review.
Assessments are based on a number of factors, such as a property’s:
I do know that!!!
This is becoming ridiculous. The BAND your place is in relates to the RELATIVE position of your home to others. Personally I wouldn’t live in any large town or city, and especially not London or any other colony, while I’ve got a hole where the sun don’t shine but that’s beside the point. Mention has been made about “Elsie” moving. Well guess what. Moving costs money and a considerable amount. Someone of “her” age couldn’t do it by renting a U-Haul and schlepping her bits and pieces including large items to it and from it. Then there’s the need for new or even second hand things for the new place. Add to that the cost of a skip for crap that you don’t want to move - there’ll always be quite a bit followed by cleaning both old and new place. Add curtains etc and of course a new lavatory seat (every move we’ve ever made has included new bog seats - well you do don’t you?) and moving is a very complicated and expensive prospect.
“He had food poisoning,” one of his team told the Sunday Times.
“He was throwing up and had to change his suit because he got sick on his lapel.”
Must have been something he had said even his body objected to.
