I resisted the urge to say Happy New Year because most people are bored with that now…and we are approximately 253 days into the New Year or that’s what it feels like. January is a long month, a very long month but once we have made it through to the end the rest of the year will fly by – I promise!
I often wonder how people start the year with things like Dry January, Veganuary or any other ‘giving something up for January’. If you are anything like me then you have committed to ‘get out of bed and get dressed every day in January’ – it gives you a certain sense of achievement at the end of the month and you can genuinely feel pleased with your efforts. If you managed anything else then I salute you – you are officially amazing!
Looking back at the January/February 2022 Viewpoint I can see that I optimistically titled it ‘Stumbling into 2022 blindfolded’. Clearly January 2022 wasn’t a great one! At that particular point in time Chris O’Shea, Chief Executive of British Gas had just gone on record to say that soaring energy prices could last up to two years. This was followed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies saying that a ‘typical’ household energy bill could be close to £2,000. At the time we were all a bit shocked by this announcement but I think most people would be happy with that now!
Now we have the Energy Price Guarantee which reduced the unit cost of electricity and gas so that households with typical energy use in Great Britain will pay, on average, around £2,500 a year on their energy bill until 31 March 2023 – come back January 2022, all is forgiven.
It isn’t all bad news though. Why is that I hear you ask? Well, I have exciting news for you….. Professional Electricians Wholesaler is going up in the world and instead of just eight issues we will now be delivering ten, shiny and fabulous issues in 2023. I fully appreciate that this will in no way compensate for the massive hike in energy bills, or the fact that January has been the longest month EVER but you have to admit it is quite exciting.
Over the next twelve months you can look forward to ten packed issues which contain all of your favourite news and views together with features on all of the popular topics which will help you and your customers to buy wisely – now that is something to look forward to.
And for those of you who didn’t kick start 2023 with a hearty challenge for every day of January, fear not – a quick Google search tells me that you’re still in luck because with 28 days, February is so neatly divided into 4 weeks that it’s the perfect time to challenge yourself to something new every week………I’ll get my coat!
See you next month – Tracey Rushton-Thorpe Editor
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