Get switched on to reducing your high energy bills

With utility prices soaring, take advantage of deals to switch your supplier and reduce consumption, says Rob Griffin

The cost of energy has been the hot topic of conversation in the past week with headline billing on the news and seemingly endless column inches devoted to the subject of whether suppliers should give consumers a better deal.

This week, a summit took place between government figures, industry officials, consumer groups and a string of energy companies at which a package of measures was discussed, including ways of making it easier to compare and switch suppliers.

This followed the publication of regulator Ofgem's plans to overhaul the industry as part of its quest for a simpler, more competitive energy market, with easily understandable tariffs, clearer bills and annual statements.

However, nothing that has been discussed – or agreed – in recent weeks is likely to be implemented overnight. Ofgem's proposals, for example, won't go out for wider consultation until next month so changes won't be made until next summer at the very earliest.

An Ofgem spokesman confirmed that final proposals are expected to be published next year but if the energy companies have issues then the whole subject could be referred to the Competition Commission which would then carry out its own analysis.

So what can consumers do in the meantime?

According to Mike O'Connor, chief executive of Consumer Focus, there are two main ways of reducing bills: shopping around for the best deals and making their homes energy efficient. Doing both could save the average family hundreds of pounds every year.

"Many people simply don't think there is much point changing tariff, payment method or supplier but they could be losing out on hundreds of pounds a year because their home leaks heat or they're missing out on a better deal," he says.

Switching energy suppliers

Research by home insurance provider swiftcover.com has found gas and electricity bills are the biggest financial worry for Britons with 39 per cent having cited utility bills as their top concern – ahead of meeting mortgage repayments.

Amanda Edwards, of swiftcover.com, said she believes the problem is as universal as it is troubling. "Staying warm during winter should be a right, but with rising prices, it is increasingly becoming a privilege," she says.

However, despite the findings of such surveys, the fact is that relatively few people are shopping around. In fact, more than half of households have never switched, according to analysis by MoneySupermarket.com, and could be paying well over the top for their energy.

Scott Byrom, energy manager at Moneysupermarket.com, points out that the most recent bout of price hikes have added an average 17.4 per cent to the cost of gas and 10.8 per cent to electricity.

"Those who aren't shopping around for the best deal are simply burning money as finding the right tariff for their consumption level and region means bill-payers could save on average £237 per year," he says. "The cheapest online tariff available is npower's Sign Online 24 with annual bills of £1,050 on average, but, for the same price, consumers can protect themselves against future price rises with EDF Energy's Fix for 2012 tariff with bills fixed at £1,050 until 31 December 2011."

Step one: Find out how much you are paying

Before hunting out better deals you need to know how much you are paying out. This can be done by looking at your last four quarterly bills. For accuracy, it's best to use bills based on meter readings rather than estimates, while your annual statement will also detail how much you spent on energy in kilowatt hours (kWh).

Step two: collect other information together

You also need to find out the name of your existing tariff and how you currently pay – namely by cheque, direct debit, online or via a prepayment meter. In the same vein, you should know how you want to pay in the future. Generally direct debit and online payments usually work out cheaper than alternative methods; although that's something you will need to check.

Step three: find the best deals

The good news is there's no shortage of ways to find the best deals – but that is also a double-edged sword as the process can appear unnecessarily complicated. Firstly you can talk to a salesperson, although they will have vested interests, so it's also worth visiting one of the many price comparison websites to see what deals are available.

Step four: choose your new provider

The good news is there won't be any interruption to your electricity or gas supply during the process of switching suppliers. Your new energy supplier will ask you for a meter reading which they will pass to your old supplier to that you can be billed for any outstanding money owed. The new supplier will then let you know the date from which they will start their supply. The whole process should be completed within six to eight weeks.

It is certainly a worthwhile exercise, according to Justin Modray, founder of website Candid Money, who switched to an npower online tariff on moving house and estimates this will save him £120-a-year. "Depending on your energy usage and current tariff, switching energy providers could save you over £100-a-year and using a cashback website like Quidco allows you to pocket the sales commission that comparison websites would otherwise receive," he says.

Make your home energy efficient

The average home can save up to £280-a-year through being more efficient, according to the Energy Saving Trust (est.org.uk), which launches its annual Energy Saving Week on Monday with the focus being on how to take back control of your spiralling energy bills.

Richard Bryson, from the Trust, said that everyone can start saving money immediately by implementing some small changes around their homes.

For example, about £35-a-year can be saved simply by turning appliances off at the plug rather than leaving them on stand-by, while £60 can be shaved off the annual bill by turning the thermostat down by just one degree.

"The first thing to do when looking to reduce your energy bills is to consider insulating your home with loft and cavity wall insulation as the savings which can be made by properly insulating your home are enough to get all homeowners to sit up and take notice," he says. "Everyone can do their bit to reduce their energy consumption and start saving money on their energy bills; and insulation is the ideal place to start."

According to the Trust, cavity wall insulation can save you about £135-a-year on fuel bills while insulating your loft will save about £175. Also worth considering is insulating beneath floorboards and filling gaps and cracks around floors and skirting boards.

And don't forget the double glazing. This cuts heat lost through the windows by 50 per cent which equates to a bill reduction of £165-a-year. If you can't afford to replace them all then the advice is to concentrate on those such as the living room which are occupied the most.

Energy can also be saved depending on the products you buy. You can look for the Energy Saving Trust Recommended logo on electrical appliances, which is a quick and easy way to spot the most energy efficient models available. The Trust estimates that replacing an old, inefficient, fridge-freezer with an energy saving recommended version could save you £26-a-year.

Make money from energy

Installing solar photovoltaic cells – which can be put on your roof or walls and capture the sun's energy, which is then turned into electricity – can not only cut your bills but potentially make you money as well.

Once you have paid for the initial installation your electricity costs should be significantly reduced. The Energy Saving Trust suggests that a typical home solar PV system can produce around 75 per cent of the electricity a household uses in a year.

You can potentially make money on any excess electricity by selling it back to the grid through a scheme known as Feed-In Tariffs, which became available in April last year. However, solar installations do not come cheap. Although prices will vary, you will probably be looking at the best part of £12,000 and would be advised to check with your local authority building control officer that the work will comply with existing regulations. 

Source www.independent.co.uk/

Scott Cousins moves on from home-plate collision

By JANIE McCAULEY AP Baseball Writer 

SAN FRANCISCO Behind the batting cage at Benedetti Diamond, Scott Cousins is at ease. Wearing a green University of San Francisco baseball hoodie, shades and sporting a beard, he has no trouble blending in with the college kids around him.
Within the green fences of the baseball complex at this Jesuit school, Cousins has found the home he never had growing up among the men he considers family, the coach he cherishes as a second father. The Hilltop, as it's known, provides the perfect place for Cousins to rehabilitate lower back and hip injuries in relative anonymity.
It's also just a couple of miles from AT&T Park. That's where the Florida Marlins' rookie outfielder gained notoriety five months ago for a frightening collision at home plate that ended the season of Giants catcher Buster Posey, the reigning NL Rookie of the Year.
"That's why I'm growing out the beard," Cousins joked. "As a disguise."
It's here that he offers hitting tips to former college teammate and current workout partner Stefan Gartrell while waiting to get his own work done—no swings yet as he returns to health.
"This is his safe haven," said longtime Dons coach Nino Giarratano, who has supported Cousins through his ordeal. "This is his family. He's a wonderful kid. He's a man now. We're lucky to have him."
Cousins was instantly vilified, but those close to him know a different story. They talk of the time in Arizona two weeks after the  collision when he approached an 18-year-old woman in a wheelchair, her mother and their friend and offered them tickets and field passes for a Marlins-Diamondbacks game.
He is the man who proposed to his girlfriend of five years, Mandy Short, last Saturday—and flew in a couple of her close friends to help celebrate. Short's mother is a widow, so Cousins asked for her permission to marry. The couple met during his junior year and final season at USF.
"This is a hero's journey," Mandy's mom, Laura, said during an engagement party last weekend. "He has been tested beyond belief not just in his childhood, but in his baseball life. The sport he loves so much and the town he loves so much turned on him. They crucified him. What an up-and-down rookie year. To his credit, personal or professional, he always takes the high road."
To this day, some say Cousins is the reason the Giants are on their couches this October instead of trying for a repeat World Series championship. This is the same guy who was in the stands during last fall's playoffs rooting for San Francisco once his own season ended.
Cousins' father would like people to know his son for the person he is, not simply for one debated baseball play.
"I don't want him to just be remembered for that," said Steve Cousins, a carpenter who raised three children as a single dad and was always on the lookout for extra work to pay for his son's sport. "We never had enough money, but we didn't have a bad life. We had a happy life. It just so happened I loved baseball and Scott was pretty good at it. We bonded through that.
"I didn't graduate high school. My whole goal was to make the kids not like me."
Cousins, a middle child, spent parts of his youth homeless in Reno, Nev., where his dad searched for steady work and always told his son to "never get a B." Not once did Cousins cause trouble from the time he began living full time with his father at age 8 until leaving for USF.
The family often lived in motels—"never a home we built, never a stable home," Cousins said. His mother was in and out of their lives.
"Kind of an Army brat without the Army," Cousins said, sharing some personal and emotional stories from his upbringing in an interview with The Associated Press. "Technically, we were homeless, but never sleeping outside or in a homeless shelter."
They had baseball.
Once his dad was done working for the day, they'd head to the field. Cousins would swing until his "hands would bleed." When he didn't have his own baseball, Cousins hit rocks off a tee—or his dad's beat-up coffee cup. From age 9 on, he played baseball year-round, determined to build a future.
While he didn't have the money to join a traveling team, his talent attracted scouts and college coaches. Cousins became the first in his family to attend college and is a semester shy of a business degree.
He was third in his high school class of about 300 with a 3.97 GPA. That's after he changed elementary schools roughly seven times—Cousins lost count—and spent the second half of his senior year in high school living with a family friend along with his father and younger brother.
"He's gone down a long, hard path. To go through your whole life and not drop the ball once, maybe some people have heard of that, but not me," Steve Cousins said.
Baseball gave Cousins a purpose, a distraction. It still does in many ways. When he steps into the batting cage, Cousins can forget all the other stuff—like being unpopular because of one play.
"Why am I sitting on the pity pot because people don't like me?" Cousins said of his credo.
———
The 26-year-old Cousins sheds a layer on a warm fall day in the Bay Area to reveal a long-sleeved gray Marlins shirt. He insists he's "not famous enough" to be recognized—even in Florida gear. Gartrell, the Braves' Triple-A Player of the Year, teases his friend that he wouldn't like him as much without such a compelling life story.
Cousins ponders everything that happened during that May 25 game, with his family and friends in the stands as he got his chance to pinch hit with the score tied.
He hadn't played the night before, yet was thrilled to see 40,000 fans in the sold-out ballpark he has loved for so long and to see his name was on the main center-field scoreboard.
"I'm jacked up, like, 'Wow, this is awesome,'" Cousins recalled. He commissioned Mandy's engagement ring during that San Francisco stop, too.
On the play, Cousins sprinted home with several things running through his mind.
He figured on a routine slide, though months later reminds himself that his life has been anything but routine. When he saw Posey in position to get him out, Cousins made the split-second decision to try to knock the ball loose because he thought Posey had caught it—though the catcher never controlled it. Cousins scored what wound up as the winning run in a 7-6, 12-inning victory.
"The perfect storm," Cousins calls it.
Would things have been different had he laid down a better bunt so John Buck ahead of him wouldn't get forced out at second? Or if Buck, who caught the entire game, had been fresh on the base paths trying to get to second? Perhaps if Emilio Bonifacio's sacrifice fly hadn't been so shallow to right field, where Nate Schierholtz has one of the game's best arms? Or, if he had made another decision altogether?
"It was so strange," Cousins said. "It was like something had to balance it out. It was like something had to happen, because in my life it's always happened. It's just kind of the way things have gone for me in my life."
———
Cousins grew up a Giants fan, his dream to one day play in orange and black.
"He wanted to be a Giant and I think he still does, surprisingly," his fiancee said.
After splashing a home run into McCovey Cove in a game against California—with Giants general manager Brian Sabean in the stands—during his All-American junior season as a pitcher and outfielder in 2006, the left-handed-hitting Cousins hoped San Francisco would draft him.
In the aftermath of Posey's devastating injury, an emotional Sabean—the father of five boys with a sixth on the way—called out Cousins on the radio. Shocked and saddened by the injury, Sabean defended his player as he would anyone in the organization, no matter his stature.
"If I never hear from Cousins again, or he doesn't play another day in the big leagues, I think we'll all be happy," Sabean said at the time. "He chose to be a hero, in my mind. If that's his flash of fame, that's as good as it's going to get, pal. We'll have a long memory."
Sabean expressed privately and later publicly that his anger was misplaced toward the person rather than the play itself. He reached out to Cousins to apologize. The Giants also issued a statement and Cousins released one of his own.
"That hurt a lot, especially coming from the guy I wanted to play for forever," Cousins said. "That got to me. He stirred up this hurricane again that was just starting to settle."

After the collision, there were a half-dozen death threats and a bout of depression to go with the nagging injuries.
It has taken time for him to come to terms with it all. Everybody is eager to move on—Cousins, Posey, Sabean.
"The depression issue is like a herniated disk. It's something you can always keep at bay if you're prudent. That's just my style," Cousins said. "I'm not going to let anything get the best of me. If that would have been the case, I would have cashed this in at age 16."
For so long, Cousins hoped just to speak to Posey and have some closure. When that didn't happen, he decided that Posey must be under way in his healing (the catcher is recovering from a broken bone in his lower left leg and three torn ligaments in his ankle). Now, Cousins needed to heal himself.
USF is part of that process.
Cousins has returned to his school to work out every winter since the Marlins selected him in the third round of the 2006 draft. Yet this offseason is markedly different because of "the incident"—as he refers to it—that is still so fresh for a city that was celebrating an improbable World Series title just under a year ago.
Cousins was the little-known rookie who clobbered and seriously injured the franchise superstar.
"I was basically run out of town by a lynch mob," Cousins said. "I'm not going to be afraid of my own shadow. I'm not going to walk around with an apology letter on my back. That's not the way life is lived. I've apologized till I'm blue in the face. It's not going to change anything. I'm not going to stop living my life. I'm not going to be scared. I have big plans."
Cousins didn't play for the Marlins again after June 12, spending the rest of the season on the disabled list. And, no, he didn't get hurt that night. His troublesome back has been bothering him for 2 1/2 years.
Six days a week, Cousins makes the short walk from his home to campus to work out and rehab. He will begin hitting off a tee Nov. 1.
"He helps all the guys, and it's genuine," said former Dons pitcher Matt Hiserman, now on Giarratano's staff. "It would be easy for him to come and get his work in and not talk to anybody."

Cousins couldn't watch the replays of the collision on TV. He didn't sleep well for days. Pete Rose—who ran over catcher Ray Fosse in the 1970 All-Star game—would later come to his defense. Umpire Jim Joyce, part of his own controversy last year when his blown call cost Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga a perfect game, offered support.
"At the end of the day, it's a baseball play," Cousins said. "It's a play that we get paid to make and that fans pay to watch. It's an unfortunate part of the game, but it's a necessary part of the game. That's where I'm at with that. That's it. There's no other way to put it."
Cousins is ready to start fresh next season—just as he did after nearly walking away from USF as a homesick freshman.
He stayed put playing for Giarratano and became West Coast Conference Player of the Year and an All-American, then eventually a major leaguer. He hopes one ill-fated moment doesn't define his career.
"I'm still on the roster. I'm still kicking," Cousins said. "My plan this year is to get in the best shape I've ever been in and come back with something to prove. I feel it's my time to do something really great in this game

The Older Home: Make old lighting fixtures shine with new wiring, shades

Do your older lighting fixtures dim in comparison to the rest of your home’s antique décor? Give your lamps, sconces and chandeliers a facelift with new wiring, shades or a professionally polished shine.

 Great lighting can make a room more welcoming and functional and - with the right decorative fixtures - more pleasing to the eye, as well.
Vintage Charm, Modern Function
Did your home come with antique fixtures, maybe even the kind that originally used oil or gas instead of electricity? They can be easily adapted for life in the 21st century at Dason Lighting, Teaneck (201-837-7831). Owner Fred D’Atri and his staff also can revive a dulled bronze finish and restore any antique to its glory days.
"We’re a complete restoration business," D’Atri said. "If it was a gaslight or oil fixture and needs converting into electric, we do that...If it’s a fixture from the 1920s, and it was electric but the wiring now is shot, we can redo the wiring.
"By far, we do more restoration work than we do sales. If it takes a light bulb, even if it’s 20, 30 or 40 years old, we’ll work on it - whether it’s a chandelier, a wall sconce or a table lamp. Items don’t have to be 100 years old, but we’re specialists in 100-year-old lighting."
D’Atri explained that one of his shop’s specialties, which few other companies offer, is restoration and polishing of metal fixtures. His expertise with older lighting is also a plus, he said, in dealing with valuable pieces.
"If your (modern) lamp breaks, you might go to the hardware store and have a socket put in it," he said. "If you have an antique candelabra and the socket’s gone, are you going to trust the repairman to do it? Probably not. So we tend to get the more expensive lamps, rather than the inexpensive ones."
Oft-Neglected Element
D’Atri said he does most of his business through interior decorators, and knows from experience that homeowners put lighting changes at the end of their renovation to-do lists.
"We’re the lowest-paid of all your contract work," he said. "A renovation project typically runs out of funding by the time it gets to lighting, so no one wants to spend any money."
Then, about 10 years down the road, D’Atri has observed, the homeowners will decide it’s time to focus on their lights and come to him. In the meantime, though, they’ve missed out on the aesthetic and functional benefits of good lighting.
"When you walk into a dining room, (for example), lighting is one of the focal points," he said. "The first thing that strikes you is the chandelier."
Customers also can find all types of antique and collectible lights for sale at Dason, as well as new fabric shades from $50 to $350.
Preserving High Quality
Bryan Kule also repairs older lighting fixtures at Shades of Soho, with stores in both Glen Rock and Norwood (shades-ofsoho.com). When converting an oil or gas lamp into electric, he said, it’s a simple process to clean out the lamp and then attach the parts and wiring to make it run on electricity.
"The older stuff - like the old gas lamp that had the chimney glass around it - people break those all the time," Kule said. "I can find a match every time to those glass pieces. People get so excited that they can get the exact one they had from the 1950s or prior. But if someone brings me something new, there’s no replacement for it because it’s made in China."
He said he enjoys working on older fixtures because they possess a quality of craftsmanship not found in modern-day pieces, which tend to use "subpar pieces and are glued together." Another difference in modern lamps, he explained, is that they may have weights inside instead of being made out of a solid material.
Kule said lower-cost lamps are meant to be tossed when a homeowner changes their décor or when the item breaks. With older fixtures, homeowners can expect the pieces to last for decades and can change aspects of the fixture to complement the surroundings.
"The older stuff from years ago is just much better-made - the pieces are all screwed in and locked in nicely," Kule said. "We’ve been doing this for 19 years. I learned from the old-timers of American manufacturing, so I know what quality is."
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Source www.northjersey.com/

Mobile home contractor trying to 'make amends'

By LORI A. CARTER THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
A Sonoma County mobile home contractor who is facing discipline from the state contractor's board said Friday he is trying to make good on his promises to finish work he started for several mobile home residents.

A story in Tuesday's Press Democrat revealed multiple complaints against Tim Silva for work he was paid to complete but either never started or never finished.

More than a dozen residents of the Leisure Lake Mobile Home Park in Petaluma said he has bilked them out of at least $9,500 for repairs not completed. Several said he requested all of the money up front or large amounts and then disappeared or only partially completed the promised work.

Since the story was published, The Press Democrat has received nearly a dozen calls from people — most elderly and two who said they were his family members — offering similar accounts of dealings with Silva.

Also, two additional formal complaints have been lodged with the state, on Oct. 12 and Oct. 19, alleging violations of state laws governing contractors' work. That is in addition to a recent fine and an ongoing investigation.

Petaluma Police Lt. Tim Lyons said his detectives are working with county prosecutors to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.

Silva was formerly licensed by the Contractors State License Board as a mobile home contractor. But his license expired in June, the day after a notice of “investigation of probable violation” was attached to his license.

The board also fined him $2,350 earlier this month for violations similar to those claimed by Leisure Lake residents.

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MONEY MATTERS: Nursing home avoidance policies

By Chuck Nilosek

Wicked Local Plymout
In my last column, I focused on the importance of planning against the cost of a nursing home stay that statistically will be in the cards for over 70 percent of us here in the United States.
This week, I want to construct a framework that allows you to create a Nursing Home Avoidance policy. Obviously, the good Lord above is our best hope for staying healthy and out of a nursing home. But how can you plan ahead to make sure that, if you do get sick, you will not have to go to a nursing home?
If you ask 100 people where they would like to receive care if they’re ever in need of skilled nursing attention, I assume 99 of them would choose their own home. To make sure that happens, you need to take a series of simple steps to protect yourself. Most health care providers and industry professionals will tell you that Medicare, for the most part, will not pay for any extended home care. Therefore, people are forced to go into a nursing home because that is the only place Medicaid or MassHealth will pay. Seems crazy, as home care is typically far less costly than a nursing home. But those are the rules we have to play by.
Not only is it more appealing to be in your own home during a recovery period, it makes it far easier for the family to be an active and caring part of the healing process. One fact I found startling was that of the 1.6 million people living in nursing homes in the U.S. right now, 33 percent suffer from some form of depression (according to the American Health Care Association and the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging). Our homes are where we feel the safest and happiest. We will recover faster and be less likely affected by depression or other emotional issues. Since we can’t control what might happen to us physically, it makes sense to control how we pay for the care we need and the place where we’ll receive it.
Home care services include skilled and intermediate care, custodial care and homemaking services, as well as occupational and physical therapies. Most long-term care insurance policies include home care provisions – typically the number one reason people choose to purchase such a tool. As I mentioned in my  last column, I hope your policy turns out to be a big waste but if you ever need it, you’ll be so glad you took the steps in advance.
One question I often hear regarding long term care insurance is, “What is the appropriate age to make such a purchase?” Although statistics show that most people will need this later in life, 41 percent of people residing in nursing homes right now are under the age of 65 (Georgetown University-Long Term Care Financing Project, June 2007). The right age to acquire LTCI is before something happens. You can only get insurance before something happens. It’s unlikely you can get a more comprehensive fire insurance policy while standing on your lawn watching your house burn.
People need to consider three factors before purchasing an LTCI policy. The first is their assets. Do I need a $150,000 automobile insurance policy if I drive a Yugo? No. You would only be creating a policy to cover the assets you intend to protect. If you don’t have a home, income or any type of investments, then the step off the curb onto Medicaid isn’t too much off a drop. Medicaid allows you to keep $2,000, but will make you spend all of your money before stepping in to foot the bill. Next, is your current health. Insurance companies will only issue you a policy if you are healthy. Seems obvious, but the only time I get a call from someone asking about purchasing LTCI is when they’ve heard something unfortunate from their doctor. Usually, that means it is too late. Health restrictions are getting tighter and tighter and if you battle weight issues, blood pressure problems or any type of arthritis, now is the time to look into this. The longer you wait, the less chance you have to get approved.
The last item to consider is your age. Simply put, the younger you are the less it costs. That rate will ideally be what you pay for the majority of the time you have the policy, assuming you select a company with a good track record of success. It also allows you more creative ways to pay for the premium, with the use of employee benefits or paid-up plans designed to take care of the whole balance in a 10-year period.
The easiest way to know if you are a candidate for LTCI is to imagine how you would pay for care if you needed it right now. If that cost was $12,000 per month, how much of your personal assets and income could you afford to put towards that price tag. Maybe $4,000? Then you would need a policy that covered the remaining $8,000. If you can afford more out of pocket, then the policy can and should be for less. This is why the very rich consider themselves bad candidates for LTCI, because if they get sick, their own assets can be spent on their care without impacting their lifestyle. However, for the average middle-class American, a $12,000 bill could be the difference between wealth and poverty.
The point is to keep you out of a nursing home by allowing you to create a plan that, in the event of an accident or illness, would keep you in your own home for as long as possible. Ask your financial professional about different cost-saving methods that could best cover you but not leave you “insurance poor.” Advisors are being more and more vigilant in their recommendations on this type of planning, as it has become an unfortunate truth that the children of people who have lost everything to a nursing home are taking legal action against the financial planner who failed to provide adequate protection. I always note in a client’s file if I suggest a long-term care health plan and the client rejects it. So, I can always go back to the kids and show them it was advised to their parents.
Long Term Care Insurance and planning is a difficult and annoying process. It costs money that we can always find reasons to use elsewhere and it can be the easiest thing to put off till a later date. But it may be one of the most important estate planning steps you ever take.
Chuck Nilosek is the host of Money Matters Radio on 96.9 Boston Talks, which airs Sundays at noon, and the owner of SHP Financial of Plymouth. Questions and comments can be directed to www.shpfinancial.com, 508-746-2400 or chuckn@shpne.com.

Nic Cicutti: IFA hangers-on must be shaken off

Will IFAs be ready in time for the RDR? Do they even want to be? I ask these questions after reading a fascinating article by Martin Bamford in Money Marketing, in which he asks whether thousands of IFAs will run out of time to meet the January 2013 deadline.He warns that IFAs are in danger of not making it because they are unprepared for the work involved. He points out the FSA has started giving accredited status to professional bodies, allowing them to provide statements of professional standing to financial advisers.
This supposedly gives consumers the reassurance they need that their adviser subscribes to a code of ethics, is properly qualified and has kept their knowledge up to date, by means of agreed annual CPD activities.
Unfortunately, things are not so easy, Martin suggests: “I can envisage a scenario where lots of advisers leave their applications until the last minute, which could cause problems when they discover their gap-filling is not up to scratch.”
An even more worrying scenario could unfold in terms of how IFAs prepare to implement key aspects of the RDR in so far as pricing is concerned. The reality is That things will be a lot harder than advisers imagine.
There are two problems with this approach. The first is that while adviser-charging linked to the implementation of a product purchase decision by a client may seem relatively similar to the current practice of commission payment for the same service, in practice, it is not.
Consumers will expect far greater transparency and while they might have been reasonably happy until now to allow an adviser to charge for his or her services by means of commission, they are unlikely to do so in the future.
Given the above, IFAs need to work out a sensible business strategy that is properly road-tested to iron out any last-minute wrinkles, so there are no nasty surprises in just over a year’s time.
Martin argues: “It takes time to create, test and refine a compelling proposition. This is not something that can happen overnight. It is probably not something that can happen in the space of a few months.”
Essentially, the central proposition of his argument is that IFAs need to buck their ideas up if they want to be ready for 2013.
But what if they don’t, or could hardly care less? What if a sizeable proportion genuinely believe they can just blag their clients?
Increasingly, I suspect that to be the strategy of many advisers.
Some IFAs may hope they have a window of at least 12 months, possibly even a couple of years, before the penny drops with consumers about some of the key aspects of the RDR.
If that is the case, this group of advisers will be thinking, why bother, when there is plenty of time left before any harsh realities have to be confronted? Some of those realities may never need to be confronted at all.
After all, if you are one of the group of late 50-somethings, you may not bother sticking around long enough for your client bank to desert you - and that’s assuming they were likely to in the first place. Under such a scenario, all they need is a couple of years more, give or take, making money off their clients and they are home and dry.
I suspect they may have a point - a hang-on-by-your-fingertips strategy is just as potentially viable as Martin’s one.
My gut feeling is it will take a lot longer than he assumes before consumers genuinely take on board some of the key arguments about what the RDR means to them. Unless, of course, both the FSA and the consumer press do not let up from day one of the new regime.
Which is why, if I were the regulator, I would be willing to spend many millions of pounds informing the public about the RDR, what its potential effect and advantages could be and the kind of questions that clients need to think about asking their advisers.
If I were a journalist on a national paper, I would be telling my readers in immense detail about the changes and demanding that IFAs come clean about the way they charge and what kind of service they will offer their clients in future for the money they receive.
In that respect, the battle after 2012 will be between boring people to death and overkill against inertia and the status quo.
I would love to think that even though some advisers will slip through the cracks and bamboozle their clients for years, the majority will not be able to get away with it.
My worry is I might be wrong and that even after 2013 life for many IFAs will be a case of business as usual.
IFAs like Martin, who believe in better ways of delivering advice, need to club together to make sure it does not.
Nic Cicutti can be contacted at nic@inspiredmoney.co.uk
Source www.moneymarketing.co.uk/

Make Avenue a fortress – urges Dorchester boss

By Ky Capel

 ASHLEY Vickers is determined to see a vast improvement in Dorchester Town’s home record, having already witnessed “the good, the bad and the ugly”.
In six Blue Square Bet South outings on home soil, the Magpies have recorded just two wins, while losing the other four.
And with fellow bottom-half residents Boreham Wood set to visit the Avenue Stadium tomorrow (3pm), an upturn in fortunes is very much required.
Boss Vickers said: “Of course we want to improve our home form. After I took over (November 2009) we lost just one game at home in the second half of that season. Last season we drew too many games and this season we can’t seem to buy a draw.
“As we have stated so many times before, we’re looking for continuity of performances. We’ve fluctuated between the good, the bad and the ugly so far, and not enough good at times. We are a work in progress and we’re looking to get seven or eight games out of 10 where we play really well and everyone is firing on all cylinders.
“We work tirelessly with what we’ve got and the boys always want to improve. I’m sure that combination will begin to pay dividends.”
The 40-year-old added: “We want to give our supporters a really good performance but we need all of them behind us.
“At this level of football, players have to enjoy their football.
“Any undue pressure can work negatively so all we want is for everyone who comes to the game tomorrow to be positive and transmit that positivity on to the pitch.”
Having been without three of their most experienced players in recent weeks – Mark Jermyn, Nick Crittenden and Ashley Nicholls – the Magpies could welcome back as many as four key men for tomorrow’s encounter with the Wood.
Defender Gary Bowles returns from suspension while Crittenden (hamstring), Jermyn (knee) and Ben Dickenson (concussion) face late fitness tests.
Vickers said: “Critts played for the reserves in midweek and was very positive. Tomorrow may be a bit too soon for him, but it may not be.
“We will have to make a decision on him, Ben and Mark nearer the time.”
Nicholls though, remains sidelined with a hamstring problem.
Discussing tomorrow’s opponents, who also have 15 points from 13 games, the county town chief added: “They have got a bit of money and have brought some players in.
“We have done our homework on them and spoken to managers who have played them recently, so we will be ready. We feel that if we prepare right, we have every chance.”
Vickers also confirmed that Portsmouth loanee Lewis Tallack will be staying for another month.
Magpies (from): Walker-Harris, Evans, Tallack, Smeeton, Martin, Critchell, N Walker, Bowles, Dovell, Gleeson, Jermyn, Bell, Symes, Mekki, Crittenden, Devlin, Flood, Dickenson, Moss, Wilson.
* With Chelmsford City still in the FA Cup, next week’s intended clash at Melbourne Park has been moved to Monday, November 7.
As a result, the home meeting with Tonbridge Angels has been brought forward to next Saturday.

Home Again

Written by Megan Wyatt

It is often said that a person never truly leaves Louisiana, and the same holds true for Kelly Keeling, international musician extraordinaire. After spending more than two decades on tour, Keeling found himself too homesick to continue and returned to his hometown — even his home neighborhood — of Lafayette.
"I missed home from the first year I left," Keeling says. "And I was going to come back the next year; another year happened, another opportunity happened — money — opportunities with money happened, and I was offered money to stay out. And one day I had enough money, and I'm like I'm going home."
If you didn't know Keeling's passion when you walked into his Lafayette home, it would become immediately apparent upon entering his living room. Framed and signed albums show where he has been in life. Six-string, 12-string and bass guitars can be found on every piece of furniture. A dull, worn trumpet stands up on its bell beside an electric keyboard, and a cello is balanced in one corner of the room. These are the instruments that have carried and will continue to carry Keeling into his future in music.
Keeling has numerous credits to his name — vocalist for Trans-Siberian Orchestra, writer for Alice Cooper's "Hey Stoopid" album, 49 albums, even a vocalist on the popular video game Guitar Hero — but he's ready to break away from the fast-paced life of fame to the slower, more familiar life of southern Louisiana. Now that he's back in Lafayette, somewhere he hasn't been since he was a teenager, he's focusing on solo work and teaching young musicians.
"After being on the road so long, I really wanted to know where I was," Keeling said. "I know where I am, and I feel safe here. Nothing's changed. Everyone's still here. It's still mellow here. It's good to be back home."
To blast himself back into the local music scene, Keeling will be performing a Beatles tribute at the inaugural Ridge Road Festival. The Beatles have always inspired him, Keeling says, and he played Paul McCartney at a Beatles Tribute Show at Bohemian Grove, an elite gentlemen's club in Monte Rio, Calif.
"That's what fueled me wanting to do this because it was just so much fun," Keeling said. "I do it well. I do McCartney and Lennon well. (People) are able to kind of forget their troubles for the day and the older generation to relive their childhood."
Keeling has collaborated with the Acadiana School of the Arts and other local musicians to put together a tribute that will do the band justice. He has even acquired some of the Beatles' original sound tracks that he will be incorporating into Saturday's show. To be more involved in his hometown community, Keeling aims to make his Beatles tribute a monthly event held at different venues around Acadiana. He wants to get different young musicians involved, too, as the Acadiana School for the Arts will be involved in Saturday's production.
"Each event will invite the school choir, gets the community involved," he says. "It's a great way for me to break into teaching because I know the Beatles very well. It's how I learned how to play, and if I'm going to teach, I want to teach the same way I learned. You can't teach somebody chords or notes and expect them to pick it up and learn songs. You teach them some Beatles songs and that sparks. Its just a lot easier to do."
In addition to The Beatles tribute from 6 to 7:30 p.m., musical guests Kim Roy, Caleb Elliot, Wayne Curtis, Chad Meaux, Greg Fain, Brent Williams, Josh Lee, Gabe McCasey, Jacques LePretre, Buddy Duchame and Sean Keating will perform between noon and midnight Saturday.

Amazing Zayne could be home for Christmas

HOPES are high that baby Zayne will join his family in time for Christmas thanks to the support of Cliffe Hill Community Primary School.
Fourteen-month-old Zayne Wheeler has come through a series of life saving heart operations and now helped by the local community it looks as if he will be home to his parents, Matthew and Tamsyn, for Christmas.
The couple, of Deep Lane, Clifton, has been overwhelmed by the support and generosity of parents, staff and friends at the Lightcliffe school who have raised £620 with a raffle. The money will fund a specially adapted cot which will cater for Zayne’s needs so he can be released from Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax.
When Zayne was born he was diagnosed with transposition of great arteries (a heart defect), ventricular septal defect (a hole in the heart) and narrowing of the aorta.
At just three weeks old he had to undergo major heart surgery, a procedure doctors didn’t expect him to survive because he was battling a lung infection and pneumonia.
The surgery was only a temporary fix until Zayne was well enough but he was allowed home at seven-weeks old.
“We were put on a waiting list for his second operation and everything seemed to be perfect until he got a cold at the beginning of March this year,” said Tamsyn.
Zayne took a turn for the worst and was rushed to theatre for a second time. Again Zayne defied the odds and survived.
But joy quickly turned to despair for the family when doctors said Zayne had to be fitted with a tracheotomy because he had a condition described as “floppy airways”.
Matthew and Tamsyn have had to learn how to care for Zayne and he was allowed home for a few hours on August 1 for his first birthday so he could spend time with his parents, and two older brother, Danyal, eight, and Tobias, six.
While battling the heart condition Zayne was diagnosed with vocal cord palsy on the left side, a condition they have put down to being incubated. This means that the only time he has cried or made any kind of noise is in the first few weeks of his life.
An MRI scan also revealed that the youngster had had a massive stroke when he was weeks old and he has celebral palsy, to what extent is still unknown.
But there is now light at the end of the tunnel and the family is making plans to bring their little boy home.
The money raised from Cliffe Hill, where Zayne’s two older brothers attend, will fund a temporary cot while they apply for funding from Calderdale Royal.
Tamsyn said the cot will cost in the region of £4,000 because it needs to have adjustable sides to cater for Zayne’s needs. “If the funding is approved the cot is made to order so it meant missing out for Christmas. We were determined that this was not going to happen and the school stepped in to help,” said Tamsyn.
Friends Sophie Treadgold and Shelley Walton were so touched by the family’s story they approached head, Lindsay Lomas, to organise the raffle.
Parents went to great lengths to support them especially Stephen Milner whose company Vdotcom donated a 40inch flat-screen TV and camcorder for the raffle. His company also bought £68 worth of raffle tickets but requested that they were not entered into the draw.
Matthew said they really appreciated what the school had done. “There are people that have had it worse than us. It is hard and just to get that little bit of support from the school is fantastic,” he said. “Everyone at Cliffe Hill has been so understanding and amazing. Even some of the teachers’ partners have offered to do fun runs.”
Tamsyn added: “They are amazing, everyone at the school has a heart of gold.”
Mrs Lomas said it was a tearful event. “A parent summed Cliffe Hill up when she said Cliffe Hill is more than a school, it is a community,” she said. “I think everyone was moved on Friday when they realised just what a difference they had made by supporting the family. Many thanks to all those who donated prizes and sold tickets.
“Thanks also go to Mr Milner for providing us with such fantastic prizes. We are looking forward to seeing so much more of Zayne, and of course preparing him for his start in nursery.”
It is thought Zayne will need to be on ventilation for the next two years. His parents said they don’t know what the future will bring or if he will crawl or make any kind of noise. “But he is a little fighter. Look at how much he has come through,” said Tamsyn.
Source www.brighouseecho.co.uk/

Hotline can help to cut winter bills

Scottish Government Viewpoint

 WITH winter coming and the recent announcement of price rises from the main energy providers, households across Scotland are being urged to take action to help save money on fuel bills and ensure their homes are warm and cosy this winter, by calling the Home Energy Scotland Hotline.
The hotline is a one-stop shop for independent energy-saving advice, providing practical solutions such as free or discounted insulation, which can help make your home more energy efficient and save you money.
Peter Rickard, centre manager for the hotline in the Highlands and Islands, said: “What most people don’t realise is that up to 50 per cent of the heat in their home could be escaping through the walls and roof by not having the correct amount of insulation.
“It’s so quick and easy to install insulation and it will reduce the amount of gas and electricity it takes to heat your home. This could help you make real savings on your heating bills this winter.
“There’s free advice available, so I would urge people across the Highlands and Islands to call the Home Energy Scotland Hotline to find out if they can get free or discounted insulation.”
Insulation not only helps to cut your heating bills, but also reduces wasted energy, which means it is better for the environment.
Whilst many homes may have some level of insulation, two out of three households do not have the correct amount, so the first thing to do is check what you already have.
For example, you may already have some insulation in your loft, but if it falls short of the recommended depth of 270mm (about the length of a sheet of A4 paper), you could make further savings on your energy bills by topping it up.
Insulating your loft alone could save you up to £175 a year and an additional £135 with cavity wall insulation.
Insulation is quick and easy to install and can also help prevent condensation on walls and ceilings and give your home a more even temperature, year round.
In addition to insulation measures, the Home Energy Scotland Hotline also provides practical advice on how to make changes around your home, which can make a big difference to your energy consumption and help save you money in the long term.
Turn your thermostat down. Reducing your room temperature by one degree could cut your heating bills by up to 10 per cent and typically saves around £60 per year.
Close your curtains at dusk to stop heat escaping through the windows and check for draughts around windows and doors.
Don’t leave appliances on stand-by and remember not to leave laptops and mobile phones on charge unnecessarily.
A dripping hot water tap wastes energy and in one week wastes enough hot water to fill half a bath, so fix leaking taps and make sure they’re fully turned off!
Wash your clothes at 30 degrees – it uses 40 per cent less electricity over a year than washing at higher temperatures.
Is your water too hot? Check your cylinder thermostat to make sure it is set at 60°C
140°F. Say no to stand-by and you could save around £35 a year by switching items off.
Replace your lightbulbs with energy-saving bulbs. They last up to 10 times longer than ordinary bulbs. Using one can save you around £55 over the lifetime of the bulb.
By taking these measures to be energy efficient, including getting the correct level of insulation fitted, you could save on average £280 a year.
Now is the best time to get your home insulation fitted, before the cold weather arrives. Don’t get caught out. Act now and insulate your home before you end up paying more for your heating than you need to this year.
For energy saving advice, call the Home Energy Scotland Hotline on 0800 512 012 or on 0300 456 2655 from a mobile (charged at your local network rate). Or visit www.homeenergyscotland.org.uk
Source www.highland-news.co.uk/

Save money on energy bills with a brand new home

The government's Code for Sustainable Homes is driving the housebuilding industry to become ‘greener' at a time when energy bills are soaring, making the idea of owning a new home an attractive one.
A new survey from B&Q reveals that four in 10 homeowners will struggle to pay their energy bills this winter, despite government efforts to convince the country's largest energy firms to tackle rapidly rising energy prices.
Figures last week showed annual bills have now increased to £1,345 a year for the average household - double the £740 of five years ago.
Similarly, another 80% of the 2,000 homeowners polled worry about how much their heating bills come to, and the same percentage try to delay putting their heating on for as long as possible in an effort to save money.
Unsurprisingly, sustainability is rising quickly up housing agendas. More homeowners are engaging with the issue in an effort to make their homes better insulated and more energy efficient in order to tackle rising energy bills.
Matt Sexton, director of corporate social responsibility for B&Q, said: "With cash-strapped homeowners about to be hit by soaring energy bills, it's vital that homeowners look at making simple changes to their homes that could save hundreds of pounds a year."
A viable alternative is to simply buy a brand new home, which are improving in energy efficiency each year, as housebuilders create contemporary homes that meet high efficiency targets, reducing energy consumption, and bills, in the process.
New homes are generally more energy efficient, thanks to improved insulation, energy efficient boilers, double glazing, better drought proofing, low energy light bulbs, solar heat gain, among a range of other efficient appliances.
"Modern homes are built to higher insulation standards and have more efficient heating systems than at any other time," said Shirley Watson, NHBC's engineering services manager. "Not only is this good for the environment it is also a major attraction for homebuyers who benefit from lower fuel bills."
Source www.whathouse.co.uk/

BMO "Makes It Happen" for Homeowners on HGTV

TORONTO, ONTARIO, Oct 20, 2011 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- BMO Bank of Montreal is helping Canadians achieve their home ownership dreams by sponsoring "Make It Happen Mondays" on HGTV Canada during the Monday night TV line-up of My First Place, My First Sale, and Property Virgins, which premiered on October 17, 2011 from 8pm-11pm ET/5pm-8pm PT.

"We've all got dreams of finding the perfect home for an affordable price, and renovating to make it our own, but sometimes we need a little help to 'Make It Happen'," said Sandy Bourne, Vice-President, Sponsorships, BMO Financial Group. "As HGTV is a leader when it comes to providing Canadians with entertaining and engaging programs that provide ideas and advice on the many facets of homeownership, we see this sponsorship as the perfect complement to BMO's ongoing commitment to help make money make sense for Canadians."

This sponsorship allows BMO to provide HGTV's vast audience access to many of BMO's solutions designed to help them reach their financial goals, whether it is paying down the mortgage faster, getting funds for home improvement or better managing household spending and saving.

"The HGTV Monday night sponsorship provides us with a tremendous opportunity to make a direct connection with Canadians at home and showcase how BMO can help households make smart money management decisions through the wide variety of BMO products and services," said Su McVey, Vice President, Customer Communications and Marketing, BMO Bank of Montreal.

Ms. McVey added that the shows are a great counterpart to BMO SmartSteps programs (including one for Homeowners), and BMO MoneyLogic(TM) - an online personal financial management tool to help track everyday expenses.

"Shaw Media is pleased to announce the new long-term sponsorship with BMO Bank of Montreal to present 'Make It Happen Mondays' on HGTV Canada. The HGTV series airing on Monday night that feature home ownership naturally have a financial component, and we feel that BMO's notable brand and specialization in these areas provides a great partnership for the network," said Errol Da-Re, Senior Vice President of Sales, Shaw Media.

About "Make It Happen Mondays"

My First Place: My First Place captures the emotions and designing challenges of moving into your first home. The new residents, whether they are a couple, a family or an individual, get valuable assistance from an ensemble team of design experts who come up with creative solutions to practical problems for house-poor, first-time homeowners. At the core of each episode are the personal stories of the new homeowners. Everyone will be able to relate to the emotional roller coaster of buying, moving into and designing your first home!

My First Sale: Think buying your first place is tough? Try selling it! My First Sale takes the proven and successful docudrama format of My First Place and turns it upside down - telling the story from the seller's point of view. Selling your first place means the stakes are even higher than when you purchased. More pressure, more jeopardy, more to gain - and potentially thousands to lose. For HGTV viewers, My First Sale has even more drama and, most important, more valuable takeaways to help viewers make top dollar on their own sale.

Property Virgins: Property guru Sandra Rinomato helps first-time buyers find their ultimate home. Part realtor, part therapist, friend and financial advisor, Sandra helps buyers see the difference between their hopes of acquiring the out of reach dream home and the cold-hard reality of what it takes to find the right property.

About BMO Financial Group

Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly diversified North American financial services organization. With total assets of $477 billion as at July 31, 2011, and more than 47,000 employees, BMO provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions.

About Shaw Communications Inc.

Shaw Communications Inc. is a diversified communications and media company, providing consumers with broadband cable television, High-Speed Internet, Home Phone, telecommunications services (through Shaw Business), satellite direct-to-home services (through Shaw Direct) and engaging programming content (through Shaw Media). Shaw serves 3.4 million customers, through a reliable and extensive fibre network. Shaw Media operates one of the largest conventional television networks in Canada, Global Television, and 18 specialty networks including HGTV Canada, Food Network Canada, History Television and Showcase. Shaw is traded on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges and is included in the S&P/TSX 60 Index CA:SJR.B -2.32% SJR +0.10% . For more information about Shaw, please visit www.shaw.ca 

Contacts: For media enquiries, please contact: BMO Financial Group Beja Rodeck 416-867-4924 beja.rodeck@bmo.com HGTV Sarah Stevens Publicist 416-324-7471 sarah.stevens@shawmedia.ca

SOURCE: BMO Financial Group and HGTV

Foreign-owned energy firms hit UK customers with bigger price hikes than at home

by Graham Hiscott, Daily Mirror

 FOREIGN-owned energy firms are hammering UK customers with much bigger price rises than in their own countries, the Mirror can reveal.

While British families are reeling from bills rocketing more than 20%, customers in the energy giants’ home nations have seen rises nearer half that figure.
The massive difference has led to concern that European firms are happy to batter their UK customers to protect those at home.
Four of the Big Six energy firms – Scottish Power, EDF Energy, E.ON and npower – are in foreign hands.
A Mirror investigation has found their owners have passed on much smaller price increases this year in their home countries. In many cases the difference is shockingly stark.
French-owned EDF Energy has whacked-up gas prices by a hefty 22.9% and electricity by 12.3% in the UK since the start of the year.
But in France, gas prices went up 15% and electricity by just 3%. At npower, electricity bills are up by 12.7% and gas by 21.6% since January. Yet customers of the firm’s German owners, RWE, have had to cope with just one increase of 11% for gas on January 1.
To make matters worse, RWE promised not to increase prices again in Germany for the rest of 2011, while allowing its UK arm to squeeze customers here.
Rival German company E.ON has also done its best to raise bills by as little as possible at home, with electricity up by an average of 6.7% and gas by around 9.1%.
This compares with a combined jump of 21.4% in electricity for E.ON UK customers and a 21.6% hike for gas.
The final energy firm in foreign ownership is Scottish Power, which has raised electricity bills by 10% and gas by 19% since January. In Spain, customers of its owner Iberdrola are only paying extra for electricity, up 12%.

While the UK’s other two major suppliers – British Gas and Scottish & Southern Energy – have increased bills in line with their rivals, it is easier to scrutinse their finances and hold management to account.
The big difference in prices has also led to speculation that overseas energy firms could be using the extra money made here to subsidise customers at home.
Deregulation of the energy market in Europe was supposed to break the stranglehold of the national giants and allow competition.
But while the UK embraced the shake-up, other European countries have largely ignored the changes.
British Gas owner Centrica has long complained that, while deregulation has allowed European energy giants to cherry-pick suppliers here, it is effectively prevented from doing the same on the Continent. The challenge is made worse by state ownership of chunks of the firms, particularly EDF.
Dr Robert Gross, director of the Centre for Energy Policy at Imperial College in London, said: “It is questionable whether Britain has benefited from this takeover of our domestic suppliers.”
He added: “Until recently the UK was seen as a safe haven and attractive for investors who could make good profits here.”
Adam Scorer, of the watchdog Consumer Focus, said: “Foreign ownership shouldn’t make a difference.”
Mark Todd, of the website Energyhelpline.com, said: “Governments abroad are more willing to restrict price rises. In Spain, the Government can veto any rise.
“If you applied the Spanish model here, it would be like the suppliers having to ask David Cameron for permission to raise prices rather than, like now, him having to beg them not to raise them.”
MISLEADING
The criticism comes after Prime Minister Mr Cameron held an emergency summit at Number 10 on Monday with bosses of the Big Six and energy regulator Ofgem.
Energy Secretary Chris Huhne said it was the start of government plans to make the energy market more “trusted, simple and transparent for customers”.
Suppliers were condemned after Ofgem figures last week showed they were making £125 a year profit from the average customer – up 733% from earlier in the summer.
The massive rise follows the latest round of price rises which has taken the average family’s bill to more than £1,300 for gas and electricity.
Suppliers argued the figures were misleading and said higher wholesale costs would eat into their profits.
To find the best energy deal for your home, use Mirror Money's free comparison site.
How are the fuel hikes hitting you? Call our Power Hotline on 0207 293 3186 from 10am-6pm today (Thursday 20th October)

Firing Fernando Torres looks right at home leading Chelsea double ambitions as Andre Villas-Boas makes most of his squad

By Wayne Veysey at Stamford BridgeThe Spaniard showed lethal flashes against Genk while his boss rotates resources to freshen up the Blues as he kicks the untouchables era into the stands at Stamford Bridge

 Andre Villas-Boas’ Chelsea reign will not be judged on how comprehensively his team sweep aside opponents as meek as Belgian champions Genk. But 12 matches into a tenure that has resulted in only a single defeat, at the cathedral of the Premier League champions, the club’s decision to show such faith in a manager only marginally older than two of his star players is looking a sound one.
To paraphrase the Portuguese, he has not done anything special. But what he has done is kick the era of the Chelsea untouchables into the stands and made far wider use than any of his predecessors of a squad groaning with A-list boys in blue.
Take the 18-man matchday squad against Genk on Wednesday night. Villas-Boas felt confident enough to tackle the weakest link in Group E without the safety nets of Didier Drogba and skipper John Terry, both of whom were rested ahead of Sunday’s derby against QPR at Loftus Road.
Terry looked relaxed as he loafed through the media mixed zone afterwards in his civvies but even ‘Mr Chelsea’ might reflect that no player, other than perhaps goalkeeper Petr Cech, is bulletproof in the current set-up.
Claudio Ranieri was derided as the ‘Tinkerman’, but the early signs are that Villas-Boas will rotate his players with as much frequency as the first of Roman Abramovich’s seven managers, and to a level no occupier of the toxic Chelsea tracksuit has done since the Italian. ‘Andre the Agitator’ might be an appropriate moniker.

Only Frank Lampard of the front six that convincingly defeated Everton 3-1 last Saturday was retained for the visit of Genk, with Mikel, the injured Ramires, Daniel Sturridge, Drogba and Juan Mata making way for Oriol Romeu, Raul Meireles, Nicolas Anelka, Florent Malouda and Fernando Torres, who still has one game to run on a three-match domestic suspension. At the back, David Luiz replaced Terry.
It worked a treat. Chelsea carved open Genk at will, were 2-0 up after 11 minutes, 4-0 ahead three minutes before the interval and were so utterly in control that Villas-Boas withdrew Ashley Cole at half-time and Lampard and Bosingwa midway through the second half.
Villas-Boas has inherited a strong squad, one which was embellished by the summer arrivals of one known Premier League quantity in Meireles and three hugely promising ones in Mata, Romeu and Romelu Lukaku.
He might be fortunate to have, as David Moyes succinctly put it last weekend, £400m worth of talent at his disposal but the signs are that he is juggling it well.
Pertinently, the squad hierarchy is not as clear-cut as it was in the past. Lampard and Drogba, two of the mainstays of the Abramovich era, have both suffered the rare fate of being dropped for key games this season. Terry’s place is more secure but he has been left out of two of the three Champions League matches, while others like Anelka, Luiz and Malouda have had to wait their turn for first-team action.
Managing the players’ workload, keeping them fresh and ensuring there is no repeat of the anterior cruciate ligament injury suffered by Michael Essien in pre-season is at the heart of the manager’s forward planning.
The squad has a strong spine, competition for places everywhere bar goalkeeper and left-back and enough strength in depth for Villas-Boas to be confident that he can add another trophy to a cabinet that has been well stocked in recent years.
His mission, the one accepted when Abramovich agreed to buy out the £13m clause in Villas-Boas’ Porto contract, is to make Chelsea masters of all they survey. Adding to the three Premier League gongs of the Russian’s eight-year ownership of the club is one ambition, as is lifting the Champions League trophy that has become the club’s holy grail.
Strong challenges in the two main competitions would be Abramovich’s minimum expectation, one that would have been only increased by Torres’ rejuvenation.
The striker hinted that he might be out of the doldrums that had suffocated him for most of 2011 with reminders of his potency against United and Swansea last month.
By following up those two goals with a superbly taken double against Genk, one a classic side-footed finish across the goalkeeper and the other a smart header, and marrying it with a performance laced with menace and movement, Torres showed he is getting back to the lethal striker of old.
Only perhaps with the failure to grasp a simple early chance, which he steered against the post, did the Spaniard hint at the trauma he has suffered since swapping a red shirt for a blue one in January.
Otherwise, Torres looked more at home than at any time since his move from Liverpool, perhaps not surprising given the word-perfect versions of You’ll Never Walk Alone sung by the vocal visiting supporters.
Abramovich thought he was buying a centre-forward that would help Chelsea dominate at home and abroad when he broke the British transfer record.
With the player’s fragile confidence now finally restored and his body in good working order, it does not appear such a wanton waste of a billionaire’s money.
Chelsea look well placed to fire on all cylinders as they prepare for tougher assignments ahead.

Scottish connection will make McInnes at home

By stewart fisher

HE might not know it yet, but somewhere along the line Derek McInnes probably owes a small, non-specific debt of gratitude to Scott Murray.
The Aberdeen-born striker was the advance party for a mini Scottish invasion to Bristol City in the last 10 years or so and the impression he made during his two spells and 11 years at the club – he is 10th on the club’s all-time appearance list – might just have encouraged the npower Championship’s basement side to look northward for the next occupant of their manager’s office.
McInnes will formally bring an end to a successful four-year period at St Johnstone today when he is presented at Ashton Gate and Murray – who now coaches the clubs’s under-11s and works in the commercial department – feels the arrangement could be perfect for both parties.
While the club requires a shot in the arm to remove themselves from the clutches of League One while they undergo a transition to a new stadium, McInnes gets the privilege of taking the next steps on the coaching ladder at a well-supported club and to the backdrop of one of the more beautiful parts of the country.
The re-invigoration of the club under McInnes actually began a day early: fellow Scot David Clarkson, freshly recalled from a loan spell at Brentford, was on target in a closed-door game against Hereford.
“When I first moved down here I found out that the people are really friendly, and it is a lovely city,” Murray told Herald Sport. “There has always been a Scottish connection here. We have a few ex-players like Gerry Sweeney who still come down to games and I think Joe Jordan still lives in Bristol as well, so people do tend to fall in love with the place. I am sure when the new gaffer comes in he will love working here too.
“Everyone is really excited about him getting appointed. The job he has done at St Johnstone has been fantastic; he is an up-and-coming young manager and I think it is a coup for Bristol City get him here. The players just need a little bit of luck to go their way, a breath of fresh air, someone to come in and change things about a little. At the moment results aren’t going our way and the crowds have dipped a little bit but if things are going well you are talking 15,000-16,000 fans, so they do get behind their team and their manager down here.”
Other Scots on the payroll include former Hearts full-back Jamie McAllister – although he is currently injured – and Louis Carey, a centre-back who once appeared for the Scotland Under-21s. McInnes inherits a decent striker in Nicky Maynard, a former England No.1 in David James, a highly-rated winger, Albert Adomah, and a couple of Welsh internationals.
He also assumes control of a rather high wage bill and the decidedly difficult task of ushering Bristol City away from the foot of a division in which they are one of only five teams who have never featured in the Barclays Premier League – and received the parachute money that comes with relegation from it.
“Ashton Gate is a nice, historic stadium, but if you want to keep up with the big clubs then we need the revenue from a new stadium,” Murray added. “I have seen the artwork and it looks fantastic and we are hoping to get in there in the next few years. The main thing is to stay in the Championship until the new stadium comes around and then try to kick on after that. But you just need to look at West Ham to see how difficult the Championship is – they are paying Kevin Nolan something like £50,000 a week.
“Our wage bill at the moment is a lot higher than it should be, so Derek might have to get a few out on loan, or let a few go, before he can bring some in.”
Bristol City haven’t been in the top flight since 1980, but went close in 2008, Murray was on the bench as they lost a play-off final to Hull City. “Looking back, we probably got there a bit too early,” he said, “It would have been better if we had built success slowly.”
Doing so now is the kind of task which has McInnes’ name on it.

 Source www.heraldscotland.com/

Column: Make plans for your money if inflation troubles loom

Many folks have scoffed at me when I have talked about inflation in the future and rising home prices down the road. Last week, the Kiplinger letter suggested that in the not too distant future, we might be looking at inflation again.
Most people think that the economy has to be really good for inflation to hit, with too much money chasing too few goods. That's what we learned in high school. However, high government debt is the main ingredient in the Kiplinger letter from Oct. 7. I won't go into all the details here -- you can read the letter -- but I firmly believe that it will happen. It might not be as bad as the 1980s, but we could easily see 5 percent to 6 percent per year over a relatively long time period starting as early as 2013.
Think about how that would affect the real estate that you own now or that you would buy at low prices this year. Let's say you buy a home that used to be worth $125,000 and now you get a great deal because of depressed prices or a foreclosure at $100,000. Your payment would be under $500 before taxes and insurance at today's very low fixed rates. By the time you added on taxes and insurance, your payment would likely be around $700 per month. That's about the same price as an average apartment.
Let's assume it takes awhile but over the next 10 years, we average 5.5 percent inflation. That means the home would be worth somewhere over $170,000 in 2023 dollars.
Skeptics will argue that wages, gas and food will have all increased at the same rate, so the price of the house is really the same as it is now. Well, that is partially true, but what about rent versus a mortgage payment? Rent will have increased to about $1,200 in the same time period with the same inflation rate. What happened to your mortgage payment? Well, you locked in with those cheap rates back in 2011 and your real estate taxes are the only thing that increased by less than 100 dollars during that period, so your payment still is under $800. After you figure tax advantages and inflation advantages, despite some maintenance costs, it is a little hard for any skeptic not to look at buying as a lot better financial decision than renting if there is inflation on the horizon. Now calculate the wisdom of purchasing a vacation home or rental property in today's dollars and -- well, you can do the math.

Harlan J. Accola is branch manager of Envoy Mortgage of Wisconsin, 211 S. Central Ave. He can be reached at 715-384-7878 or email haccola@envoymtg.com.
Source www.wausaudailyherald.com

The bedroom-blockers are getting on – so should they be getting out?

By Jan Etherington and Esther Rantzen 

As a report points the finger at elderly 'bedroom-blockers’ for depriving young families of a home, two empty-nesters ask whether it is selfish to have so many spare rooms.

  Now listen up, bedroom-blockers. There comes a time when we should all move on. To those who are still living in homes far too big for them, it’s time to blow away the cobwebs and put a “For sale” board up outside the front door.

It can take quite a lot to dislodge a bedroom-blocker. Despite their irritating name, the Intergenerational Foundation has hit on a really good idea in its Hoarding of Housing report. It says that those of us who have been clinging on to large family houses should be given an incentive to move on and move out.

And there are a lot of us, with more than a third of homes in England “under-occupied”. The study claims that 25 million bedrooms are empty in England’s homes – and oldies are to blame.

According to another report, by the English Housing Survey, 51.5 per cent of over-65s live in homes with two or more bedrooms they don’t need. And we single oldies are the worst squanderers of living space. Half of all single households where the owner is aged over 60 have three spare bedrooms or more. Which is very naughty of us, because there are young families who badly need our homes – children would use those empty bedrooms.
The foundation’s idea is that old people who move into a more manageable property should be let off paying stamp duty.
That would have been really helpful back in May, when I downsized. For I, too, had been a limpet. I was utterly attached to my family home, which was gorgeous: rambling, five storeys, ivy- and wisteria-clad, with a nice garden. It had everything a family could enjoy – and fill.
Each of my three children had a bedroom, which became their private realm. Joshua, my son, filled his with bits of obsolete technology he couldn’t bear to part with. Em and Becca, my daughters, filled their shelves with books and photographs. And my late husband Desmond Wilcox and I crammed every remaining nook and cranny with ornaments and souvenirs, files and furniture we had collected over 40 years.
The place was a memorial to all our happiness, a museum of love. But the children grew, as children will, and two moved out. The au pair left. I was left with four empty rooms echoing in the floor above mine. And then a buyer came along.
They were a lovely family with three children, like mine. Mrs New Owner fell in love with the house, just as I had 23 years before. I printed out the history of the house for her and her children ran happily around the garden, playing exactly where my own had played. And then, helter-skelter, the children ran up and down the stairs, picking out their own bedrooms. I felt the house smile and grow warm again. A family home needs a family.
I realised then that I had no god-given right to the place. My mother had set me an example by moving from her family house to a flat, and had blossomed there, freed from some of the worries that go with blocked gutters and a leaking roof. So I followed her example and found myself a little two-bedroom flat, one bedroom for me, one spare. (The foundation does permit us a spare room, just in case.)
At first, I admit, it felt like living in a timeshare, because it was devoid of memories and I’d had to get rid of things I had treasured for years. But five months later, I don’t miss any of it. Surrounded by just my best-loved paintings, I love them all the more.
I kept an album of photographs of my old home, and of my children in the garden, which I labelled – self-pityingly – “Loss”. But there are new children living there now. In time they too will move on, reluctantly, no doubt, but looking forward to the future. I have moved on, and am looking forward, not back. I am a bedroom-blocker no longer. And a good thing, too.
Esther Rantzen
NO, says Jan Etherington
There’s somebody at the door. Oh, it’s the Property Police. They’ve come to arrest me for refusing to move out of my house, which they’ve decided is too big for me. Any minute now, someone will burst in to measure my floor space; too much square footage and I’ll be forced out and into a broom cupboard or an attic.
I am spitting feathers at the most bullying, patronising and downright offensive report by the Intergenerational Foundation (IF) – a bossy charity whose contention is that “British policymakers have given undue advantages to the older generation at the expense of younger and future generations”. Which translates as “Get the oldies!”.
The report accuses pensioners of “bedroom-blocking”, and suggests that older people in big houses must downsize and move to smaller homes to free up the stagnating housing market. Quite aside from the cheek, this argument doesn’t make sense.
If those of us with big houses move out and buy smaller ones, surely we’ll be depleting the stock of more affordable housing available to younger buyers? And if we try to sell, who is going to buy the bigger houses? Property developers, who can knock them down.
The IF (surely it stands for Interfering Fools?) witters: “More than half of adults over the age of 65 live in homes with two more bedrooms than they 'require’.” Who decides how many bedrooms is a requirement? Do they believe a couple require only one? It’s not necessarily true, what with snoring, insomnia and general nocturnal incompatability.
It goes on: “It is understandable that retired people 'cling’ to their home, long after it has outlived its usefulness…”. I’m not 'clinging’ to anything – except my knuckles, to stop me punching anyone with an IF lapel badge. I’m living – and working – in the house I love, and it has five bedrooms. Reckless extravagance!
My husband and I bought it years after the children had moved out, because, as comedy writers who work from home, we wanted the space. I have four grandchildren. Every room is used regularly and… hang on! Why do I need to justify this? It’s my house and I’ll damn well live where I like. But they’re still going to try to bribe us to downsize by urging ministers to offer tax breaks.
Why not just put everyone over 60 in the Big Brother house, because Big Brother is alive and well and working at the Intergenerational Foundation. Listen to this: “There are profound social consequences to their [over-65s’] actions, which are now causing real problems.” And this: “We believe that each generation should pay its own way, which is not happening at present.” Off to the Diary Room with the lot of us!
How dare they insult a generation of babyboomers? Far from selfishly squatting, Scrooge-like, in Downton Abbey splendour, clutching a pile of money and ignoring the hardships of the younger generation, we’ve paid our own way all our lives – and other people’s, too. Everyone I know in this age group is helping and supporting their adult children – and often, their parents as well – even though our own pensions and savings have been decimated by gross mismanagement in the financial markets. As the economy darkens, we need those extra bedrooms because our adult children – and in some cases, grandchildren – may one day move back in.
Trying to bully and shame us into downsizing won’t work. Except, here’s the irony. My house in Richmond is up for sale. Not because it’s too big for us, nor because we’ve been intimidated into moving by this ludicrous report, but because we fancy living by the sea. Probably in quite a big house.