Pensioner's £67,000 power bill

by The_Cynic | August 27, 2009 at 06:03 pm

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Unbelievable? Even more so when you look at the companies figures for 2007 [PDF]

A County Londonderry pensioner who has lived without electricity for 27 years has been told Northern Ireland Electricity will charge him £67,000 to link his home to the grid.

The company made a profit of £149.7m (2007 - £163.2m), pensioner John McCarter, 74, draws a pension of just over £100 a week.

That is all he has to live on.

There other houses close to where John lives - so why doesn't the electricity company lay the lines they need to; to all of them for when the other home owners decide they want to go from candles to electricity power?

Practicality and goodwill by the company comes into the tale here. After all, he will be a paying customer - and therefore those who follow him will also be paying customers - so where is the real problem other than the company doesn't want to spend any of those vast profits to bring a bit of warmth to an old man's bones.

Capitalism at its finest?