 IF THE BBC were to commission CBeebies to investigate the rapid rise in energy bills over the last few years, it would get a more thorough report than that churned out by Panorama.  Much has been said about the decline of the once peerless Panorama in recent years. a distinguished reputation for forensic investigations into issues that TV otherwise skims over has been tarnished by a series of unbalanced reports that would have embarrassed the Beeb's children's channel.  Last Monday was perhaps a new low, when the programme's probe into rising energy bills contrived to ignore the biggest factor driving them up: wholesale gas prices.  anyone would have thought the oil and gas industry had been given editorial control, such was the focus on the impact of renewables on energy bills.  There are numerous reasons why we're bracing for the biggest energy bills on record over the winter. Renewables are a factor, as Panorama was at pains to point out, yet only one of many.  If there's one thing that suppliers, the regulator and independent analysts agree on, it's that higher wholesale gas prices have been the biggest single influence on energy bills in recent years.  Ofgem has estimated that wholesale costs are responsible for more than half our energy bills, with the recent spike caused by a surge in global oil and gas prices.  The disagreements start from that base, thanks to the failure of suppliers to reflect changing wholesale costs in domestic energy tariffs.  The BBC's agenda is anyone's guess, but an investigation into the energy market that fails to examine the tendency of the big six to raise their tariffs at the same time and by the same amounts - even while they pay different rates for their wholesale supply - is a waste of time.  BTL hits first-timers  THE summer green shoots in the Scottish housing market may be as good as it gets for this year, with the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors talking of an "early hibernation" after activity slipped last month.  But one area of the housing market is thriving - buy-to-let (BTL). Lenders advanced 46 per cent more in loans to BTL landlords in the last quarter than in the same period last year, while the number of loans given jumped by almost 40 per cent over the year. and with the squeeze on first-time buyers set to push demand for rental accommodation for some time yet, the BTL market is in the midst of a mini-boom.  No one can blame those with surplus cash and struggling to secure income from other sources for buying up first-time buyer properties to let out. But as BTL bounces back, the return to health of the wider housing market becomes more distant.  For those hoping to get a foothold on the property ladder, signs of a BTL revival are bad news. Firstly, investment landlords are helping support property prices at a time when they need to fall further to give more first-time buyers a chance of saving the deposits needed. and, as in the housing boom of the mid-noughties, homes that would typically be marketed towards first-timers are being snapped up by landlords, reducing the already limited stock of cheaper properties on the market.  So even more would-be buyers are renting for longer and trying to save the  