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Despite the most recent switching figures showing a declining rate, Ofgem consumer research has found more people are now inclined to change supplier than in the spring.
4 years ago
The number of prepayment meter customers using emergency credit has increased considerably, a new report has found. Since April Ofgem has been measuring the impacts of Covid-19 social distancing on domestic energy consumption, financial wellbeing and the concerns of energy consumers around managing bills.
Customers who were re-prompted to change energy tariff following a collective switch (CS) trial by Ofgem were almost twice as likely to do so again, the regulator has found. Ofgem assessed whether the CS interventions as part of a trial held in March and April 2018 had a lasting or sustained impact on tariff switching in the following 17 months.
Nottingham City Council will be subjected to a review over its handling of Robin Hood Energy, the government has confirmed. The rapid non-statutory review, which has been agreed by the council, will look into the “serious governance and risk management issues” associated with the council-backed energy firm, the customers of which were recently sold to Centrica.
An investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into misleading claims about eco-friendly products should be broadened to include energy retailers, the chief executive of Good Energy has said. The CMA said its investigation is a response to the growing number of products and services marketed as environmentally friendly, adding that £41 billion was spent on ethical goods and services – almost four times as much as people spent two decades ago.
Schemes such as the warm home discount in energy or social tariffs in water could be used to flag potentially vulnerable customers to different sectors, a new report has recommended. National Energy Action’s ‘Surviving the wilderness’ report focuses on three sectors – energy, water and council tax. It concludes that common approaches to debt management can help customers to know what to expect at all stages of the process, and how to navigate the support options which may be available to them.
There are “significant” lockdown bill arrears in the energy and water sectors, with consumers owing their suppliers almost £300 million, according to new research. Citizens Advice has released new projections about the level of debt based off its previous polling data which found 3 million adults had fallen behind on at least one of their water bills during the coronavirus pandemic, whilst 2.8 million had missed an energy payment.
Utilita’s chief executive has apologised “unreservedly” to all customers who were overcharged by the supplier and outlined how the company has rectified the underlying problem.. The challenger brand, which serves 800,000 customers, agreed to pay £500,000 after it was found by Ofgem to have overcharged almost 40,000 prepayment customers.
Challenger brand Utilita has agreed to pay redress of £500,000 after it overcharged almost 40,000 prepayment customers. Utilita first self-reported to the regulator that between May 2019 and September 2019 it had mistakenly overcharged prepayment customers.
iSupply Energy is to pay more than half a million pounds in redress after almost 23,000 of its customers were blocked from switching over an eight-year period. The company is in the process of being wound down after EDF Energy acquired its more than 190,000 customer accounts from the Swedish state-owned utility Vattenfall in March this year.
Energy regulator Ofgem says it is postponing the publication of its annual State of the Market report for this year due to the pandemic. In an announcement, the regulator said it has had to reprioritise its work load due to Covid-19.
London Power says it hopes its “renewed communication push” will attract more customers this autumn, after signing up fewer than 4,000 in its first nine months of operating. In July the Greater London Authority said due to the pandemic it was scaling back its marketing plans for the supplier, which is powered by Octopus Energy.
