Energy advice must be ‘future proofed’ as market evolves

Help given to energy customers must evolve to reflect the changing nature of the market, Citizens Advice has stressed.

A blog written by the charity’s interim head of energy policy, Gillian Cooper, highlights how new business models and services, along with people being asked to make changes to their homes to meet net zero, means the nature of how it helps people must also change.

“When the world changes, we need to change as well. And the energy market is undergoing a profound transformation, which means that we can’t keep doing what we’ve always done”, Cooper said.

A recent review of the charity’s online energy advice content and an assessment of the impact of its 2019/20 outreach programmes found many people do not see energy as a priority topic and find the sector confusing. They also reported having difficulty engaging or making choices.

Cooper said the findings are helping Citizens Advice to develop new content and make improvements to existing advice programmes but added that further changes are needed to make them fit for the evolving market.

She further pointed out that despite the market changes it is “very unlikely” that people’s priorities will change very much, but the answers and options they have “could change significantly”.

She added: “But while some households will have access to more choices in the future market, many others will continue to need support dealing with issues that impact their energy use such as poor quality housing, medical conditions that mean they need to use more energy to stay healthy, insufficient incomes or debt.”

In order to keep pace with the changes, Cooper outlines three key steps:

• Advice will need to be tailored to individual circumstances and needs and Citizens Advice will have to use industry and consumer data to provide more informed answers
• Advice will have to cut through market boundaries: solving an ‘energy’ problem may not always be in the hands of a typical energy provider
• The journey people take to get to advice they need will become far more varied and Citizens Advice will need to understand these new touchpoints to make sure people get support when they need it and frame it in a way that they think about the issue

“We’re using our advocacy to make sure the market delivers for all consumers. Citizens Advice is also grappling with what these changes might mean for advice and how we can continue to meet people’s needs in a changing market. And when it comes to advice, we need to be incredibly practical and plan for all circumstances. That’s how we’ll achieve our aim of helping people find a way forward”, she added.