In a response to the CMA’s provisional findings in its energy market inquiry, energy minister Lord Bourne said the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) will “look into the CMA’s proposed solution of a safeguarding tariff which has the potential to protect those consumers who do not, or cannot switch”.
The move would be designed to limit any impact of price rises of the standard variable tariffs on the 34 per cent of customers who told the CMA they have never considered switching energy supplier.
In a letter to CMA energy investigation chairman Roger Witcomb, energy secretary Amber Rudd said she will be considering the measure, alongside the other remedies put forward by the CMA.
She wrote: “ is a potentially significant transitional intervention to protect customers until other remedies lead to the market operating more effectively”.
The other remedies proposed by the CMA include a formal prompt to switch, an independent switching website hosted by Ofgem, and the scrapping of the four tariff rule of Retail Market Reform (RMR).
Rudd also stated that any measures implemented should deliver protection to customers on “poor value standard variable tariffs” but not disincentivise switching.
The CMA is set to make its final recommendations by December this year.