Cut energy prices Rudd tells big six

Energy secretary Amber Rudd has demanded the big six energy suppliers cut their energy prices now the threat of a Labour price freeze has been lifted.

Rudd has written to each of Britain’s biggest suppliers to take action as electricity and gas prices have not lowered since the election ruled out the promised freeze under a Labour government. 

This is despite energy suppliers previously saying they could not reduce prices while the threat of a price freeze hung over them.

Rudd said she had written to suppliers as her department was “working hard to keep energy bills as low as possible” and her focus is to “get the best deal for customers.”

Ex Labour leader Ed Miliband promised to freeze prices for 20 months from 2015 until 2017 if Labour won the general election, saying the move would save consumers millions on their energy bills.

Big six supplier Npower’s chief executive Paul Massara said the price freeze presented a level of risk “beyond that we could manage in the wholesale market,” which prevented price cuts in the run up to the general election.

However a spokesperson for Npower said the supplier does not have any current plans to reduce its prices despite the threat being nullified.

The price freeze was also given as a reason behind price reductions of between just 1.3 per cent and 5.1 per cent being passed on by the big six to customers at the start of this year in response to falling wholesale prices and political pressure, despite gas prices falling by 20 per cent to historic lows.

MoneySuperMarket’s energy expert Stephen Murray described the cuts as “half-hearted”.

The pledge was also widely slammed as stifling investment and scaring off new market entrants.