Switching hits 20-year low

Switching rates between energy suppliers in the period between April and June were the lowest in almost 20 years, as soaring wholesale costs continued to limit tariff offerings.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has been updating the statistics every quarter since early 2003.

On Thursday (29 September) the department released its latest figures for switches between retailers in Great Britain in the second quarter of 2022.

They show that between April to June, 201,000 electricity and 129,000 gas switches took place – the lowest since records began.

For electricity, this is an 85% decrease on the same period last year when 1.3 million were recorded. Gas switches meanwhile saw an even bigger decrease of more than 86% from 940,000.

BEIS’ figures show that switching has declined significantly in the period from Q4 2020, which saw more than 1.5 million electricity and 1.1 million gas switches.

Other organisations have also recorded heavily subdued switches for this year.

Energy UK’s latest figures show that almost 110,000 customers moved to a new electricity supplier in August.

This is a small dip compared to July when more than 116,000 switched, but still a significant decrease of 72% compared to the same period in the year previously.

The most switches occurred among large suppliers (45%), followed by larger to small and mid-tier (30%), small and mid-tier to larger (15%) and only 10% were between small and mid-tier suppliers.

These issues will be discussed in more detail at Utility Week Forum in London this November. For more information and to book your place, click here.