Energy bosses: "Telling customers which deal is cheapest is too difficult"

by Mark Vickery on 17 January 2013  |  7 comments
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The Government wants energy suppliers to put customers on the cheapest deal for their circumstances. But according to the energy firms, that will be too difficult a task.

David Cameron’s proposed energy reforms have been dealt a blow as the boss of one of the big six energy suppliers has suggested that plans to automatically place customers  on their cheapest deal could be too difficult to implement.

Keith Anderson, chief corporate officer for ScottishPower, when giving evidence to the Energy Bill Committee in Parliament said: ““At its highest level it sounds perfectly sensible and laudable to say, ‘let’s put everybody on the cheapest tariff’. But you start to look at the detail and it becomes very complicated and it’s very difficult.”

He said: “They actually have to sign to say that they want that tariff. There are a lot of complications that need to be worked through in terms of the mechanics of how it would work. And a lot of complications around the terms of what is the cheapest for that person, because that’s not always easy to work out either.”

For hard-pressed consumers across the UK who have been hit hard by price rises this will be a concern, as people are often confused about all of the options available when choosing a gas and electricity supplier. The best resource for those looking to see all of the cheapest deals available to them is not to wait for potential legislation but to use a price comparison service which compares all of the suppliers and available tariffs.

Taking control of your energy costs by comparing suppliers yourself is imperative in order to beat the recent price rises.

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* based on a typical dual fuel tariff costing £1,400 (Source: Energyhelpline January 8, 2013). All costs are for a yearly average usage dual fuel household paying by monthly direct debit. Average usage defined by Ofgem as 16,500 kWh p.a. of gas and 3,300 kWh p.a. of electricity.

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