Energy firms to be forced to give customers lowest tariff
I am thoroughly cheesed off with privatised pseudo-monopoly companies, which control disproportionate elements of national infrastructure. I was having a heated discussion with some MPs (the circles I sometimes move in!) about this in the context of something else in a very important rural context which shall remain nameless on this theme earlier this week. This article profiles a move to tackle some of the worst excesses of the energy agenda. Can anyone explain to me why there is a justification in what should be a plain dealing world for more than one – lowest – tarrif?
Energy firms will be forced to give all of their customers the lowest tariff available under new laws announced by David Cameron.
In response to mounting concerns over the rising cost of household energy bills – four of the UK’s big six energy firms have already announced above-inflation winter price hikes – Cameron vowed in the Commons to tackle the problem.
“I can announce that we will be legislating so that energy companies have to give the lowest tariff to their customers,” he told MPs during Prime Minister’s Questions.
After the announcement, a spokesman for the prime minister said: “We have asked energy companies to take action themselves and make clear what the lowest available deals are. The point is, in practice this market is not operating for everyone. A small minority of people are actually switching deals, therefore we need to push some of this responsibility on to the energy companies.”
He said customers would have to wait until energy bill was published, possibly in the autumn, for details of how the change would work in practice. The move did not mean energy companies would end up offering only one tariff, as different customers would need different rates, he said.