(The online newspaper): If you drive from Oslo towards Hønefoss and turn right at Sundvollen, you will discover a rural idyll along the Steinsfjorden – a mix of cabins and homes with a beautiful view of the fjord and with a hill up towards Krokskogen in the back.
For eight years, Linda Iren Jensen (49) and her adult daughter have lived a mile into this landscape in a small detached house on a small farm, which they have rented for NOK 8,000 a month.
Linda has family and all her network here and is well established after 25 years as a nursing assistant living in the area – she has thrived very well. But the house in the small area known locally as Åsa is far from public transport. And last winter the electricity bill skyrocketed.
That made Linda make a life-changing decision.
– That was the last kick
Linda welcomes us on a sunny August day. The house is almost empty. It is less than a week until she and her daughter get on the plane to Narvik. Linda has long planned to study nursing, but has not had sufficient qualifications until recently.
– I struggled with the mat, but I finally did it! So when I was applying, I put Narvik first, but I also applied in Gjøvik, Kongsvinger and Drammen.
As an adult student, Linda has less to worry about. The idea of Northern Norway had been there for a while – and Linda came up with her first choice. But it was the sharp increase in the cost of living that was decisive:
– I thought about how I was going to manage this financially. Fuel prices also play a role. Drammen is close, but more expensive, and I became unsure if I was going to make it. So when I entered Narvik, it was the last kick to go north. If electricity and fuel prices had been normal, I would probably have stayed here.
Almost free electricity
Thus, a three-year nursing education awaits in Narvik. Linda has rented a smaller apartment in Ballangen, 40 minutes away from the university in Narvik, but with a bus stop minutes from the home and spectacular nature a quarter of an hour away.
She pays NOK 800 less for the apartment in the north, but the biggest cut in expenses is undisputed:
– I have entered into an electricity agreement where I pay 0.56 øre per kilowatt hour.
– Are you sure it’s pennies and not kroner?
Yes, we had to triple check this, but the agreement actually means virtually free electricity as the spot price looks right now. With July prices, Linda and her daughter will get a bill of NOK 5.60 if they use 1,000 kilowatt hours a month.
– Or, I have to pay the internet rent then.
The spot price can of course also be higher in Northern Norway. But she does not pay the VAT, because there is no VAT on electricity in Northern Norway.
Last winter, Linda’s electricity bill came to NOK 3,000, including the refund in the electricity subsidy.
In other words, she quickly saves up to NOK 3,000 a month just on electricity, if the price difference between north and south persists. In addition, fuel expenses are greatly reduced, since she can take a bus to the university.
– I have no words for it!
The fact that Linda’s daughter has her father and other family in Narvik has contributed to the decision to move. The daughter has Asperger syndrome and requires some assistance. Linda herself is looking forward to the change, although it is unlikely to be permanent:
– We don’t move very well – but I’ll have to see after three years. Maybe I’ll work a couple of extra years up north to pay off the student loan faster.
– What do you think about the fact that electricity prices have become so high that it makes you move?
– I have no words for it. That Southern Norway has to pay for Germany’s failure with its electricity policy does not belong anywhere. We are basically self-sufficient! So I think that southern Norway should have northern Norwegian prices, but not that we should connect north and south – then it will only be more expensive in northern Norway.
– They don’t know what ordinary people are
Linda Iren Jensen thinks politicians have removed themselves too much from the reality of ordinary people
– The electricity subsidy is not good enough for businesses and people who cannot afford it. And Støre is the last person who should use the motto “ordinary people’s turn”. He has no idea how ordinary people feel. There are marriages that break because of this!
It is wrong for electricity to cost so insanely much, while those in the Storting themselves are increasing their own salaries, believes the nursing assistant:
– Now they have received over a million in salary, they had a good enough salary before. If they are to be on the people’s side, they must not increase their wages in the middle of a crisis where people are almost ruined. It is no wonder that politicians are despised.
– Do you think this was any different with the previous government?
– No, then. They are so far removed from what ordinary people are. They don’t know what it is to be a normal human being.
– Many reasons to move here
Gard L. Michalsen and Kjartan Ridderseth started Heia Nord-Norge some time ago, a kind of combined job portal and information website. Among the purposes is to sell the land and oppose evictions.
Michalsen, former founder of Medier24.no and editor of E24.no, has not yet seen a flood of people fleeing their electricity bills, but lists a number of economic advantages of settling in the north:
– It is economically more favorable the further north you go. Cheaper houses, cheap electricity, and in Nord-Troms and Finnmark you also get amortization of loans and lower taxes.
He also highlights an attractive labor market:
– It is not a defeat to move north – not least the region has a number of exciting vacancies.
Population growth in northern Norway stopped in 2018, says Michalsen.
– Not because people stopped moving north, but because immigration stopped. Labor immigration is important for Northern Norway. I recommend checking both cheap electricity and vacancies – it might pay to move north, says Michalsen.
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