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Our good ol’ PM David Cameron has teamed up with Energy Secretary Chris Huhne to outline their plans for the crunch energy summit, in an article written exclusively for Money Supermarket. The summit is to be attended by politicians, consumer groups, Ofgem (the regulator) and suppliers in a bid to tackle rising gas and electricity prices, and on the face of it, the PM’s plans don’t seem too bad.

Cameron admits: “Energy bills have increased by more than £100 for most people since this summer. These price rises couldn’t come at a worse time for consumers who are already feeling the pinch from rising petrol prices and the cost of the weekly shop.”

So what is to be done about this?

Well it seems a three step plan is being proposed, the first, a plan to make things simpler. Cameron and Huhne suggest that a possible £200 a year can be saved by shopping around for our fuel suppliers but: “Right now, it’s all far too complicated and it’s incredibly frustrating.” Probably a fair representation of how most of the public feel regarding fuel tariffs.

The next step is to tackle fuel efficiency, offering a Green Deal to improve insulation for everyone free-of-charge from next year, but what about now?  Well plans are in place to subsidise the most vulnerable this winter. Can’t really complain about that now can we?

The PM continued, saying: “In the meantime, to help people warm their homes immediately, we are giving the most vulnerable households free or heavily subsidised insulation, delivered by the energy companies. Not at some point in the future, but now.”

Adding: “On top of this, we’re paying a £120 rebate to more than 600,000 of our most vulnerable pensioners, and of course, we’re maintaining the vital winter fuel payment and cold weather payments.”

The third step is to look to the future, although the PM’s main priority it to make immediate changes to help people this winter, he also hopes to follow this through with changes that will bring prices down every year.

His aim: “for today’s summit to be the start of a much more active engagement with consumers, with us all working harder and faster to deliver an energy market that is trusted, simple and transparent. A market that puts the consumer first and gets these energy bills down as much as possible.”

Sounds all well and good, but with the international price of gas looking set to continue increasing year on year, is this outlook a little far-fetched? Phil Bentley, the managing director of British gas seems to think so, stating: “In my opinion unit prices will only go one way unless someone discovers huge amounts of gas and imports it into the UK: the international price for gas I am afraid is going up.”

What do you think of Cameron’s optimistic plan to cut energy prices?  Let us know in the comments section below!

The governor of California and Mr Cameron then posed for photos, where the PM joked (I assume), that Schwarzenegger was there to help “terminate the budget deficit.” The former Mr Universe then hailed the courage of British troops as he watched the changing of the guard and visited soldiers at Wellington Barracks near Buckingham Palace.

The Terminator star told the troops, in his own imitable style:

“I get hailed a lot of times when I travel around the world as being the action hero but…you are risking your life every day when you go out to the front so I say thank you, thank you, thank you for the great work that you are doing.”

Arnie also, naturally, visited the gym, and in a rather disturbing turn of events, praised the bodies of the soldiers, saying: “I was amazed when I saw your guys pumping up in the gym with those deltoids and those biceps and the six-pack. Wow, you guys are really in great shape.”

And yes, I am only sniggering because he isn’t here.

Mr Cameron also weighed in with his own praise for the troops, saying the men faced a “very tough tour” in Afghanistan but faced it with “incredible bravery and dedication.”

It’s not the first time that Arnie and the PM have met, they’ve actually struck up a bit of a friendship in recent years, with the two meeting for the first time back in 2007. In fact, it has even been reported that the former Mr Freeze was among the first to congratulate Mr Cameron when election results came in earlier this year.

So yeah, it’s safe to say he’ll probably be returning to Downing Street again fairly soon. Yep. He’ll be back.

Plans outlined by the party has revealed that one casualty of their proposed financial shakeup would be the Financial Services Authority (FSA) with their power being transferred to the Bank of England.

Under the Conservative’s proposals, the BoE would also have the power to regulate city pay structures, risk complexity and size of financial institutions; including requirements on those which put financial stability at risk to hold large amounts of capital to act as insurance to protect the taxpayer. Meanwhile, the Financial Services Authority would be amalgamated into a new consumer protection body.

Currently the UK financial system is controlled by a triumvirate involving the Bank of England, the FSA and the Treasury and it is this model which David Cameron, the Conservative party leader, believes is inadequate and failed to protect the country’s economy during the recession.

Launching the reform plans, Mr Cameron said: “The decisions that led to this crisis represent a policy failure of historic proportions. We now need deep, wide-ranging reform that matches both the magnitude of the crisis and the scale of the hardship inflicted on the British people.

“That reform must be based on a clear understanding of what went wrong in the first place and a clear determination to put it right.

“I’m afraid the government’s proposals that all we need are a few more tweaks and a little bureaucratic tinkering are totally inadequate and risk preventing a recovery,” he said.

Interesting times ahead in the city should the Tories sweep to power…

The case, which is currently undergoing discussion in the House of Lords could cost British banks billions of pounds should the Lords rule against them and Mr Cameron is believed to be considering a plan to introduce automatic payback of charges should the Tories win the general election. The Tory leader has already instructed the shadow Chancellor George Osborne to investigate the possibility of automatic compensation which would do away with the need for consumers having to raise a claim.

In an email sent in response to Martin Lewis of website MoneySavingExpert.com, Mr Cameron said:

“Once the legal issues have been resolved I agree with you that bank customers must be compensated quickly and fairly for any unfair charges that they have had to pay. So I’ve asked my Shadow Treasury Team to look at your suggestion that banks should pay money back automatically if the courts do rule that the charges are unfair.”

The full wording of Mr Cameron’s response can be found here.

The Tories’ promise could see the amount of compensation being paid back by banks far surpass the original figures claims Mr Lewis. Should automatic compensation occur, the banks could be forced to pay back as much as £10billion or even more; whereas if consumers were to continue to claim against their banks, the likely payout would be much less – perhaps £2-3billion.

The Lords’ verdict is expected sometime in Autumn.