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Customer engagement in the energy market will fall as a result of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) remedies, according to First Utility.
Writing exclusively for Utility Week, First Utility UK managing director Ed Kamm said the ideas put forward by the CMA will not increase customer engagement, but rather have the opposite effect.
“We won’t see greater engagement off the back of the proposed remedies – in fact we strongly believe that we will see less.”
He added that the “two-speed” energy market where switchers get the best deals and “the majority – some 60 per cent of the UK population – languish on overpriced standard variable tariffs for decades” will remain to be the case.
Kamm called for “stronger intervention” from the government, to shake up the sector. He stated that the big six suppliers should be forced to switch loyal customers automatically on to cheaper tariffs.
“This would not only immediately save consumers money, eroding some of that £2 billion of overcharging identified by the CMA, it would transform the market,” he said.
“Knowing disengaged customers were no longer inert would stop the big six over-charging them. And, unable to over-charge their loyal customers, the big six would have to become more efficient businesses in order to be competitive – driving down prices for all customers.”
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