Government: 13.5 million households missing out on £200 of energy savings
New campaign launched to encourage households to shop around for cheaper energy tariffs.
The Government has launched a new campaign to encourage people to go energy shopping after figures revealed millions of households are wasting an average of over £200 each by sticking with the same supplier.
Analysis of energy bills collected from the Department of Energy & Climate Change’s Domestic Fuel Inquiry show 13.5 million households across the UK are missing out on a collective £2.7 billion worth of energy savings.
The report found by shopping around and switching to the best deals on the market millions of people could save an average of £200 or more.
The ‘Power to Switch’ campaign, which launches today, is designed to encourage people to shop around and switch to better deals with the help of the Government website Be An Energy Shopper.
It can help you make sense of your energy bill, explain how to compare tariffs and point you in the direction of Ofgem-accredited price comparison sites like lovemoney.com, which compare the whole of the market to help you find a better deal.
Big Six under fire
The campaign comes amid mounting criticism that the Big Six energy suppliers are failing to pass on savings after a drop in wholesale gas prices. Though prices have tumbled around 20% the UK’s biggest firms have only cut prices of their standard gas tariff by between 1.3% and 5.1%.
Many fear these price cuts are lulling people into a false sense of security, when in reality the cuts will amount to less than a £30 saving, compared to a potential cut of hundreds of pounds through switching.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey said: “We’ve reformed the market so that there are more suppliers, more competition, and a much faster and simpler process to switch. That means millions of people can switch supplier and save hundreds of pounds today.”
The Government’s programme of energy market reform includes:
- halving switching times – it now takes 17 days to switch to and from certain energy suppliers down from five weeks last year (for more on this read The quickest energy firms to switch to);
- encouraging new suppliers on to the market – there are now 20 independent suppliers;
- backing Ofgem reforms that force energy companies to make energy bills clearer – and providing information to customers about how to switch.
Ofgem has also recently strengthened its Confidence Code for price comparison websites, setting tighter standards on how tariffs are displayed with websites given until the end of March to comply.
The ‘Power to Switch’ campaign will run in England, Scotland and Wales over the next four weeks.
Compare energy tariffs and see if you could save
More on energy:
The UK's worst energy companies
Comments
Be the first to comment
Do you want to comment on this article? You need to be signed in for this feature