Measures to cut the cost of energy bills introduced by Gordon Brown today were, at best, met with a lukewarm reception. Union leaders had been calling for a straight tax windfall from the energy giants that sat on profits of £1.6bn from 2007 and have raised prices by 42% in the space of a year.

Instead consumers have been presented with a package of measures which will mean nothing for most people – and those it does help can settle in for a long wait. For example, the proposals include free cavity wall and loft insulation for pensioners and poor households and a 50% reduction on the cost of insulation for all other households.

Rising utility bills are putting as strain on household finances as the cost of gas and electricity soars. Pundits are predicting that fuel bills for 2008 could be two-thirds higher than a year ago.

In the last two weeks both  British Gas and EDF have imposed price hikes – EDF 22% for gas and 17% for electricity and British Gas  35% for gas and 9% for electricity.

The news that UK consumers are being "fleeced" by foreign-owned utility companies which are using high tariffs in Britain to subsidise prices in their home countries will infuriate customers already being hit by higher mortgage costs and petrol prices.

Do you put a figure on the amount need for the bare necessities of life in present-day Britain?  The Joseph Rowntree Foundation thinks it knows - though it admits that not everybody will agree. The answer is £13,400 for a single person, rising to about £25,000 for a couple with four children.

The problem is defining what bare essentials are these days. They’re not talking about  
just keeping body and soul together with a bowl of gruel and a chipped mug of rainwater. The Foundation have hit upon the concept of an ‘acceptable minimum’ standard of  living – in a country that has just enjoyed one of the longest consumer booms in human history, and the place is awash with goods of every description.

Driving down the cost of… buying a new car

The price tag on a new car is never fixed in stone and haggling could potentially result in savings of hundreds of pounds, yet only two thirds of Brits (65 per cent) would negotiate or bargain on the price of the new car. Surprisingly, Brits are more likely to negotiate at a car boot sale to save their pennies (78 per cent) rather than on a car forecourt to save their pounds.

There’s never been a better time to switch energy suppliers if you think you are not getting the best deal. 

That’s because all the suppliers have recently hiked their rates, so you are able to compare like with like. It doesn’t mean that prices won’t rise again in future, but it does mean that you can at least make a fair comparison before the next bout of price changes – either up or down. If you try to switch in the middle of a round of price increases, you may find that, as soon as you have moved to a new supplier, it too ups its prices, leaving you even worse off than before.