‘Inactive Big Six will sit back and wait for CMA fixes’

  The inactive Big Six will sit back and wait for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) fixes. That’s according to Ed Kamm, Managing Director of First Utility who spoke to […]

Featured Video Play Icon

 
The inactive Big Six will sit back and wait for the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) fixes.

That’s according to Ed Kamm, Managing Director of First Utility who spoke to ELN today after the CMA evidence hearing at Westminster.

He said energy suppliers, particularly the Big Six, need to do more to help their customers get onto the best tariffs.

He told ELN he is not satisfied with the CMA findings: “We think they correctly identify the problem that the Big Six have unilateral market power over their standard variable tariff customers, which unfortunately is 7/10 of their customers.

“However, the remedies don’t do enough to drive engagement for those customers and in fact some of the earlier remedies actually helped engaged customers more rather than disengaged customers.”

He said energy suppliers need to be more proactive but are instead waiting for the CMA to implement changes.

Mr Kamm added: “Unfortunately the Big Six will sit back and wait for the remedies to take effect and we don’t think they will be effective in the end.”

He agreed with the CMA’s solutions to the problem, which include changing the name of the standard variable tariff to more accurately reflect what it is, an ‘out of contract’ tariff.

Ofgem is to begin trialling some of these solutions this summer.

Latest Podcast