I am the customer: Richard Lloyd

“Bills could have been slashed further and sooner”

Wholesale energy costs have been reported as falling by nearly a third in the past year, hitting a five-year low, yet energy suppliers appear to have been slow to pass on these benefits to their customers, leaving some to question whether these limited price cuts are enough.

The recent reductions from SSE, Ovo Energy and Eon are of course welcome for consumers struggling with high energy bills, but some suppliers, notably Npower and EDF, have yet to act. Energy suppliers failing to pass on reduced costs to their customers is yet another example of how competition in this market isn’t working for consumers.

Last year we analysed real market data on the costs to suppliers of buying wholesale energy and compared this against what consumers have paid for wholesale costs through energy bills in the same period.  We found that energy bills could have been slashed further and sooner than the price cuts we saw last winter, saving an equivalent of £145 per household on standard energy tariffs over the past year.

Our Fairer Energy Prices campaign is calling for the Competition and Market Authority (CMA) to fix the broken energy market and ensure energy providers offer an improved service to their customers.

The CMA’s investigation is due to report in the coming weeks. We need to see measures that make consumers more confident to switch, ensure pricing is fair and make the market work effectively for consumers.

Richard Lloyd, executive director, Which?