It’s very logical that system, and great for people who like thinking about their energy costs every day.
But I do not want to think about my energy cost every day.
That’s why I fixed for a year.
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We have been ‘in discussions’ with our District Council over plans to convert a closed down pub into 7 flats
Local planning guidance suggests that 13 parking spaces should be provided for 7 flats
The developers are currently arguing with the DC re their proposed 8 spaces. I feel that despite local residents concern, the DC will capitulate over this despite there already being virtually no parking capacity within half a mile
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Unfortunately this is the way things have gone. Where my daughter lives, this new estate has little parking, and there are many 3 bed homes with 4 or 5 cars…….plus the works Transit van, its chaotic and can get nasty. Gone are the old days of one or two cars.
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Yes, the local council here generally takes no notice of residents’ concerns whatsoever.
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We’ve been down to one car for a year or so now and it’s a real pain - simply dropping Mrs AC at work if I need the car takes an hour of my day even if she gets public transport home again and that might take her 90 minutes.
As much as many of us would like to use public transport the links often aren’t there and if they are they are infrequent.
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Switch hopefully completed today - I rang them as I wanted to check something which confused me on their website in the early hours which was probably related to the switchover not having quite updated online.
Interestingly, I spotted they had a cheaper v8 tariff, and jokingly said perhaps it was a shame I hadn’t waited a few days. They said as I was still within the 14 day cooling off period they were more than happy to just switch me to the cheaper tariff - no need to cancel and reapply. That seemed very good.
Also spoke with a chap at the old supplier to ensure they’d received meter readings, he exceeded my expectations and managed to expedite the final bill and refund of outstanding credit allowing cancellation of an upcoming direct debit. Very impressed with the service given to an ex-customer as he could just have reiterated what was in an email saying final bill would take 4-6 weeks prior to refunding outstanding credit.
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Outfox do have good customer service and like I’ve said in the past, they do seem to be a little more transparent and less ‘devious’ than Octopus for example. Saying that, a while back, Outfox did mess me around when I was trying to renew which became pretty annoying.
I fixed with Outfox in Nov’25. If I put in a quote for next door now, there are two options;
12m:
Electricity - 2% cheaper
Gas - 37% more expensive 
12m:
Electricity - 6% more expensive
Gas - 14.5% more expensive
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Maybe they’re making their electricity generally a bit more attractive balanced by more expensive gas assuming most people will go for a duel fuel deal. I kept gas with British Gas as we use so little and didn’t check dual fuel tariffs.
I’ve just had my first bill since switching back to Octopus Agile.
Very pleased, the average rate was 12.5p/kWh which is excellent although this is unlikely to be sustained all year round. We export a similar amount as we import over a year and earn 12p/kWh so currently the average rate is meaning very low bills even with a small solar setup.
The key renewable we have in this country which we seem to under achieve on is tidal… as long as we have the moon and seas we will have regular reliable energy. It has capacity to continuously provide approx 12% of our base supply.
Sure its not cheap to build compared to other renewables but much cheaper than nuclear and provision has to be made for wild life, specifically water borne noise, but it has significant less risk and toxic environmental impact compared to large scale nuclear…
One thing is for sure, building solar farms on farmland with the current UK food security crisis is complete utter lunacy… and I feel should be considered illegal on the grounds of a threat to UK national security. I just hope some of those solar farms can be rapidly converted back to agricultural use quickly.
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Yes, the UK is in a unique position where not only do we have an exceptionally high tidal range, but it is found close to centres of population, most notably in the Bristol Channel for example. So the grid would cope much better than it does with offshore wind in more remote locations.
To get permission to build a solar farm you are supposed to use only the lowest grade agricultural land on which you couldn’t grow crops - fields only suitable for rough grazing. In theory the land could still be grazed by sheep for example, so it’s not necessarily completely lost for food production.
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There are a couple of sites around Colchester where the solar farms were put on land that once grew corn/wheat. Plenty of local opposition, but passed planning easily.
Yes, I suspect the site selection rules are not always intelligently applied.
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yeah apparently … however……………….. how is that grade of land being assessed, sorry I have seen little evidence of that in my part of the world .. just one local example on some of the UK’s prime agricultural land in the last couple of weeks which is ceasing vital food production and is being reused for solar panels - complete utter madness. - yet been recommended for approved….
I would be happier if they were built on non agricultural and and they were not fenced off to animals, unless they are containing livestock such as sheep, free range hens etc - and or the panels raised so wildlife and wild flowers could thrive if not enclosed for animals to support pollination for agricultural industries and farming which has declined in recent decades… but now they so often look like sterile fenced off uses of land that was previously vital food growing land.
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To suit the outcome that they require. Anybody expecting ‘authories’ to be selfless, honest and neutral is likely to be disappointed.
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To quote the inestimable Mr. Bridger (Noel Coward) in response to Camp Freddie’s opinion regarding the Benny Hill character “But Mr. Bridger , he’s not bent “, “Freddie, the whole world is bent”.
ATB, J
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I think part of the problem is the twisted economics of British agriculture which makes some products non-viable despite there being consumer demand for it. Thus farmers often seek alternative income streams just to stay afloat, and solar farms are one such option, along with wind turbines, and more traditional options such as campsites. Nonetheless I agree that productive arable land in particular shouldn’t have solar panels on it.
There is a recognised scheme for grading agricultural land, which should, and sometimes is used to inform planning applications, but I’d say that legislation should be in place to enforce this.
I’m sure that there is some inapproporiate siting of solar farms but here in rural Somerset there are very many fields that have only been used for silage or sheep for at least 15 years to my certain knowledge. There are some solar farms locally but they very often have sheep grazing amongst the panels, so I would say there is plenty of scope for more solar at least in my area. It may be different in prime food growing areas such as East Anglia.
There’s probably lots of other things living in these ‘unused’ fields though, insects of all varieties perhaps.
Would it not be better to install solar panels on house roofs where there is very little wildlife to disturb? Most houses do seem to have a roof!
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