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Chair of the Competition and Markets Authority Investigation has called for an inquiry into whether the energy retail market should be competitive.
Roger Witcomb chaired the two-year probe into the energy market but said that it did not address a “very big question”.
“Is this an appropriate market to be opened up to competition? That wasn’t the question we were asked, but I think somebody should be asking, actually is this the right model for this particular section of the market?”
“When the liberalisation of utilities happened in the 1990s it was based on ideology,” he added. “It was a very powerful idea that says allowing competition into these markets will increase innovation, improve efficiency and consumers will get a good deal, but no one has actually looked back and said, what’s the record?”
Witcomb told Utility Week that he was confident the remedies recommended would effectively increase competition and engagement within the energy market, but that the impact of competition on the market should be considered.
“Somebody ought to go back and have a look at the market given the difficulties we have around the cost of customer engagement and that everybody has to be engaged in order for it to work properly.
“It is particularly relevant because it is being looked at in the context of water, but it needs to be [looked at] properly. We’ve had too many knee-jerk reactions in this market,” he said.
Witcomb added that if the result of an inquiry was positive, he could “sleep happy” and “think this is the right way to go”.
Read the full interview with Roger Witcomb here.
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