12 The Sunday Times February 13, 2022
MONEY
comparison service, suggests that a typi-
cal family home on a standard variable
tariff will pay £175 for gas and electricity
this February, £129 in April and £96 in
July and August — even with the expected
price increases.
There are ways to lower your energy
bills. Always give meter readings to your
supplier instead of getting estimated
bills, and take a reading on March 31 so
you will be charged for all your usage
before April 1 at the lower rates.
If you have a smart meter energy
tracker you can follow your spending in
pounds and pence, and if you are on a tar-
iff that has lower off-peak charges, you
could try running washing machines and
dishwashers overnight.
Other top tips include turning off radi-
ators in unused rooms, ditching the tum-
ble dryer, running the washing machine
at 30C, using energy-efficient lightbulbs
and turning the thermostat down one
degree.Make meals from leftovers
Tania Taylor, 37, from Greater Manches-
ter, wants her heating set at 24 degrees all
the time. Her fiancé, Adam Carter, 42,
believes it should be lower and as a com-
promise they have agreed on 20 degrees.
“I really don’t want to live in a cold
house,” said Taylor, a clinical hypnother-
apist and psychotherapist. “I’m always
cold, even when I have a jumper, blanket,
two hot-water bottles. Even 20 degreesdoesn’t feel warm enough.” They pay
£348.75 a month to Utility Warehouse,
which covers their phone, internet, TV
and energy bills, up from about £250
before energy costs rose.
“I’m fortunate because I can prioritise
energy bills over other things,” said Tay-
lor, who loves using an electric heat pad
for extra warmth and leaves her Himala-
yan salt lamps on most of the time. “I
have a clinic room at home where I see cli-
ents, so I need to keep that warm. You
can’t have a freezing therapy business.”
The couple, who have a 17-year-old son
and an 18-year-old daughter who is at uni-
versity, are trying to be better with food
to lower costs, such as making meals
from leftovers. They also lowered mort-
gage costs by £120 a month by fixing for
five years when rates were low.
“We’ve made a conscious decision to
be less frivolous with money, to stop and
think, ‘Do I need this? Can this wait?’,”
said Taylor, who has stopped using shop-
ping apps such as Amazon or Etsy.
Watching your energy bills rise can be
scary, but the best thing you can do is sit
tight and stay on your present deal — it is
probably the cheapest you will get. No
suppliers are offering fixed price deals
cheaper than the price-capped tariffs.
Last week Money reported that energy
suppliers were directing customers to
fixed deals that were almost double the
price of the cap, and making it hard to
find the cheaper deals on their websites.I have two hot
water botles,
but I’m still cold
USE THIS LETTER:
Find this at times.co.uk/hsbcletter and send it to HSBC UK chief executive Ian Stuart at:
[email protected] or post to Ian Stuart, HSBC UK Bank plc, 1 Centenary Square,
Birmingham, B1 1HQDear Mr Stuart,
I am writing to lodge a formal complaint regarding HSBC’s decision to introduce banking
charges, plus fees to deposit cheques and cash, on small community groups. In the first
nine months of 2021, HSBC UK made a pre-tax profit of £1.1 billion and until very recently it
was paying £150 if you switched to its free HSBC Advance bank account.
Yet at the same time the bank decided to charge community groups, many of which
suffered great difficulty during the pandemic. I appreciate the bank’s justification for this is
that these fees “reflect the ongoing costs associated with improving and maintaining a
business bank account”, yet these groups are not businesses, they are volunteer-run local
groups who give up their own time and money to make a difference to our communities.
Every additional cost they incur is ultimately passed on to members.
The Financial Conduct Authority found that leading banks like yours already make about
£490 from each business bank account customer. Some £253 of this comes from funding
benefit, from you using the small amounts of money we hold in our accounts to lend to
borrowers. You also make money from cross-selling other products to us. That’s why these
charges are unjustified. In HSBC’s 2020 sustainability report, HSBC chief executive Noel
Quinn wrote that the bank “has an impact on people all over the world, including the wider
communities we serve. Being sustainable means building strong relationships with these
stakeholders and taking into account the issues that matter to them.”
As part of a community served by you, I am asking you to live up to your sustainability
pledge, and scrap these charges for thousands of small groups.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
(Insert name here)ing to school to save on fuel costs, plan-
ning their meals to avoid waste and
cutting down takeaways from twice a
week to once a fortnight.
Energy is one factor pushing the cost
of living skyward. Inflation, which
includes gas prices but also other costs
such as food and transport, is expected to
hit 7.25 per cent for the year to April.
Mortgage costs are rising thanks to
increasing interest rates, council tax bills
are expected to go up and workers and
employers will pay an extra 1.25 per cent
points in national insurance from April to
fund the social care levy.
A worker on a £40,000 salary will pay
£4,032, up from £3,652, while someone
earning £100,000 will pay £7,009, up
from £5,879.
With household finances being pulled
in every direction, those hooked on their
heating are trying to cut out other luxu-
ries to keep their energy habits viable.Downsize the car
Emma-Jane Taylor, from Oxfordshire,
would rather give up holidays abroad and
drive a smaller, more efficient car than
turn down the heating, despite her bills
going up £100 a month.
She tried to wait as long as possible
before turning it on in the autumn, but
once she turns it on, she struggles not to
have it on all the time.
“I would definitely cut back on other
things,” said Taylor, 59, founder of the
Works Company, a series of lifestyle busi-
nesses. She admits to leaving the lights
on, and leaving the door open while she
lets out her West Highland terrier Char-
lie. She has swapped a BMW6 Series for a
Fiat 500, which has reduced her fuel,
insurance and tax costs, and is taking UK
holidays instead of foreign trips to save
money.
The government is introducing two
measures to help those feeling the
squeeze. All domestic energy customers
will get a £200 reduction in their bills
from October, to be paid back over the
next five years at £40 a year, starting in
April 2023. Households in England in
bands A to D will get a £150 rebate on their
council tax bill from April, and equivalent
discounts will be provided to those in
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Further help may come in the form of the
weather. Although the energy price cap is
going up in April, the days should be
warmer by then. The Energy Shop, aWHY
DON’T
YOU
TURN
THE
LIGHTS
OFF?
Switching off your
lights is one of the
easiest ways to save
energy, says the
Scottish Power
website. “It only takes
seconds.” But last
Wednesday at 10pm
its headquarters in
Glasgow and the
main building of
British Gas in Windsor
were not exactly
leading by example.BRITISH GAS SCOTTISH POWER
BEN STEVENS AND ROBERT PERRY FOR THE SUNDAY TIMEST
ina Nandha has a bright yel-
low note stuck to the lower
edge of her computer screen
in her home office. On it is
written £151 in bold. This is
her new monthly energy bill,
nearly double the £86 she and
her husband, Jay, 41, who
works in finance, used to pay.
In April it will go up again.
Tina is always cold, and loves the com-
fort of a warm, well-lit house. She even
makes Jay lie on her side for 20 minutes
before she goes to bed to warm it up, and
often uses a plug-in foot warmer. She
used to keep the thermostat at their
three-bedroom terraced house in Bore-
hamwood, Hertfordshire, at 24C.
“I have to have the note there to stop
me leaning over and turning up the ther-
mostat while I’m working from home,”
said Tina, 36, a professional gift wrapper
who runs workshops for high street
shops. “It did shock me into action when I
saw how much it had gone up by. I’d
rather spend that money on the kids.
“Even when my whole family is warm
and I’m in jumpers and layers, I’m cold.
When the heating was on I’d still have a
heat pack and be drinking a hot drink.
But I can’t justify the heating any more.”
The Nandhas are adjusting their
energy usage and cutting excess spend-
ing as the cost of living crisis hits their
finances.
The energy price cap, which limits
how much a supplier can charge custom-
ers on a standard variable tariff per unit
of gas and electricity, rose 12 per cent in
October, and will go up a further 54 per
cent in April.
From April 1, the price per kWh for
electricity will go from 21p to 28p, while
gas prices will jump from 4p to 7p.
According to the Energy Saving Trust,
heating a detached house could cost
£2,600 a year, up from £1,700, while a flat
would cost £1,400, up from £900.
Tina no longer turns on the heating
during the day, and it is set to 22C for
when their two daughters, aged five and
seven, get home from school. That is still
higher than the recommended tempera-
ture of between 18C and 21C, and every
degree less can save you about £80 a year.
Tina’s children have learnt about
energy usage in classes and often tell her
off for leaving the lights on and her com-
puter on standby. The family is also walk-Rising bills will come
as a nasty shock for
those who insist on
staying toasty at all times,
they tell Imogen Tew
Heating at 24 degrees, back door open,
lights on: confessions of energy sinners
ZELDA DE HOLLANDER PHOTOGRAPHYMPs and consumer groups
are asking HSBC to reconsider
its decision to charge small
community groups, charities
and sports clubs £60 a year
for bank accounts. Dozens of
groups have been in contactHere’s how to
protest about
HSBC’s charity fees
since The Sunday Times began
highlighting the impact of
these new bank fees.
We are inviting these
groups to write directly to the
HSBC UK chief executive, Ian
Stuart, using our template
letter, to protest against the
charges and explain how theyGeorge Nixonhave been affected by them.
HSBC reported a profit of
nearly £4 billion in the first
nine months of 2021. Its chief
executive, Noel Quinn, was
paid £4.1 million last year.
Fleur Anderson, the MP for
Putney who chairs the
parliamentary group on
charities and volunteering,
said: “No one will know how
many charities could have
started up but can’t get going
and get more funds because
they can’t afford a bank
account if fees are put up.
“An essential community
banking need is free banking
for small charities. Banks
cannot talk about being at the
heart of communities and
then cut this important
service by putting up fees.”
Siobhain McDonagh, the
MP for Mitcham and Morden
and a member of the
Treasury select committee,
said: “Throughout the
pandemic, community clubs
and volunteer groups have
offered a lifeline for so many
people up and down thecountry. “Taxpayers bailed
out the banks. Why is it that
the banks choose now to hit
the smallest hardest?”
The Financial Conduct
Authority, the City regulator,
said banks were free to
choose their own charges and
who they offer services to,
but added: “We expect them
to treat their customers fairly
and encourage all firms to
consider their impact on
wider society.”
Among those affected by
the charges is a small
volunteer group from
Leicestershire that runs
weekly exercise sessions for
elderly people suffering from
illness and lung conditions.
Breathe Easy Loughborough
said HSBC’s charges put its
survival at risk. Its income
was about £2,400 before the
pandemic. The 30 regular
attendees at its weekly
session, who have usually
been referred to the class by a
doctor — pay £3, which goes
towards hiring a community
hall and paying an instructor.The classes, for elderly
people who do not feel
comfortable going to a gym,
lead to “an improvement in
overall health and reduced
hospital admissions”, Jim
Andrews, the group’s
treasurer, said. As well as the
classes, Breathe Easy runs
local trips for members and
pays for a Christmas lunch.
Andrews said: “With the
current rates of inflation we
anticipate an increase in our
room hire and instructor
costs. These additional bank
charges may be the death
knell that puts our group and
others’ survival at risk.”
HSBC said: “We did not
take this decision lightly and
understand that price
increases are never welcome.
We have provided free
banking to Charities and
Community groups as far
back as our records show, but
the cost of maintaining this
type of bank account has
increased substantially over
the years, as have cash and
cheque processing costs.”This Loughborough exercise group fears it may not surviveEmma-Jane Taylor,
left, gave up her
BMW; Tina and Jay
Nandha’s daughters
tell them off for
leaving the lights
on; Tania Taylor,
below with her
fiancé Adam, says
she needs to keep
the house warm for
her therapy clients