Energy saving package

Gordon Brown has recently announced an energy saving package that will cost £910m. The money is to be used to help people who are struggling to cope with the spiralling cost of electricity and gas prices.

The package offers half price insulation for all UK households as well as several offers aimed at the old and poor including free cavity wall and loft insulation and an increase in cold weather payments.

The government expects the large energy companies to pay for the package but one wonders where they will get the money from - I can't see their shareholders taking a dividend cut, or their directors taking a pay cut, however I can see them increasing the costs of gas and electricity to recover their costs - a sort of giving with one hand and taking away with the other - of course I could be wrong but if the energy companies wanted to be generous why not just reduce prices?