Power drained from Grid profit

..BUT WE’LL ONLY SAVE £10 PER YEAR

ENERGY giants have been ordered to slash the rewards they give to investors – though households will benefit by less than 20p a week.

Network companies such as National Grid, that run pipes and wires transporting gas and electricity around the country, have long been accused of raking in unjustified profits. Now regulator Ofgem is cutting their so-called return on equity from nearly 8% to 4.3% between 2021 and 2026.

Ofgem said this and other measures would save customers £2.3billion by 2026 – but that equates to just £10 a year off the average bill. Ofgem fgem chief executive Jonathan athan

Britain’s grocery ery market had its s best month of sales in November as shoppers spent £10.9billion in stores and online, said industry experts Kantar.

Internet shopping ng also reached a record ord high, with more than an six million households putting in orders with online grocers.

FRONT MAN Peter Andre

Brearley said firms would still be able to attract the investment needed.

The plans allow £40bn of infrastructure spending by the providers, which also include SSE and ScottishPower, with the money recouped from customers’ bills.

Alistair Cromwell of Citizens Advice said: “For too long network companies made excessive profits because price controls were too generous.” But Scottish Power boss Keith Anderson said the plans risked “the global investment our business requires if we are to support net-zero ambitions.” Shares in both National Grid and SSE

sti still rose in value yesterday.

An online shopping firm whose biggest shareholder is billionaire Mike Ashley’s Frasers Group has put itself up for sale. Accrington-based Studio Retail, which teamed up with singer Peter Andre in a recent I’m a Celebrity-linked competition, has a stock market value of £240million. The Lancashire firm rejected a £1 £139million takeover bid from Fras Frasers last April.