Electricity switching in Great Britain saw an almost 20 per cent dip last month compared to August 2020, the latest figures from Electralink show.
So far this year more than 3.8 million switches have been completed, which is 100,000 less than the same eight-month period in 2020.
A total of 399,000 switches were completed last month – a 19 per cent dip compared to the same month last year, the lowest August since 2016 and the second lowest month of the year so far.
Electralink said the announcement by Ofgem of the increase to the price cap, due to take effect on 1 October, does not yet appear to have resulted in an urgency by consumers to change suppliers.
There were 482,000 changes of supplier (CoS) started last month, 18 per cent less than August 2020 and the lowest monthly count of switches started so far this year.
“Due to the industry-standard switching process, our analysts believe it is likely we will start seeing the outcome of popular financial advisors’ recommendations reflected in September’s switching reports,” Electralink added.
In terms of switch types, large to other reached 96,000 which is a 40 per cent drop compared to August 2020 and 24 per cent of total switches completed.
There were less remarkable results for the other CoS types but Electralink added that recent supplier failures and potential movement initiated by the price cap increase may result in more dramatic fluctuations over the next two months.
- Large to large CoS reached 179,000 – nine per cent less than August 2020 and 45 per cent of August 2021’s total switches completed
- Other to large landed at 67,000 – two per cent more than August 2020 and 17 per cent of total switches completed last month
- Other to other CoS hit 56,000 – 23 per cent less than August 2020 and 14 per cent of August 2021’s total switches completed
The latest switching figures follow the news last week that Compare the Market completely paused its energy comparison service, with only a handful of deals available on other sites.
Rising costs in the wholesale market led to suppliers restricting the number of tariffs they are able to offer via price comparison services.