The boss of npower believes energy suppliers don’t deserve “bad press” but has admitted suppliers need to do “much more” to get customers to trust them.

The industry has been grappling with mass confusion after Prime Minister David Cameron made a surprise announcement that suppliers would be forced to offer their lowest tariffs, while last week suppliers coped with criticism for being a “cartel”.

Defending his industry which will have to spend £200billion in the next decade to modernise the power network, Volker Beckers, chief executive of RWE npower said: “Do we deserve the bad press? Well my personal view is we don’t. Equally I feel criticism is important to keep you on your toes and improve the service we provide.

“We believe we are doing everything we can on the trust agenda. Is it sufficient? No it’s not. We need to do much more on this.”

Last Friday Ofgem released its Retail Market Review, the plans to make the electricity market more open and simpler for customers to understand.

Mr Beckers suggested the way suppliers deal with their customers is paramount.

He added: “I’m very passionate about the way we are dealing with and serving our customers, why is it important? It’s effectively the endorsement to provide customers not only 24 hours, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year electricity, sometimes we even need to get into their homes helping them with energy efficiency measures, reading their meters. If they don’t trust us how can I possibly get access to their homes?”

Volker Beckers will be speaking at Energy Live 2012 next Thursday Nov 1.