A little good news for the Consumer

[Ed1237]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...m-energy-bills

[Amethyst]

Re: A little good new for the Consumer

Energy industry regulator, Ofgem, this morning stepped up the pressure on Britain's big six energy suppliers over unfair pricing.
The regulator acknowledged the companies were on the way to stripping out up to £500m in unfair premiums for customers such as those using pre-payment meters, including many disadvantaged households, but said it wanted faster action.
Today it announced that it is launching a consultation process to look at changes to the energy companies's licences to ban unfair pricing and protect consumers.
Ofgem warned that if its latest initiative proved insufficient it would take further action and said it was not ruling out a full-scale reference to the Competition Commission.
"We've seen progress but it's certainly not the end game," Ofgem's chief executive, Alistair Buchanan said.
Buchanan told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The end-of-autumn-term report card for the power companies is that the B-minus which we awarded at half-term has moved to a B-plus, but I think consumers and Ofgem expect an A.
"We are going to keep the regulatory hobnails on. We are going to add a legal toe-cap to this."
He added: "We want two things – first of all, legal changes to lock in the protections for consumers so the companies can't slip back to their old ways and poor performance, and we will look to do that through a licence change.
"Secondly, we want the companies to deliver the rest of the premium to the off-gas grid customers during the winter."
Buchanan said he anticipated falls in household energy prices early in 2009.
Domestic customers are still paying large bills for their gas and electricity, despite sharp falls in wholesale prices, because the companies bought the power for this winter at peak prices during the summer, he explained.
In an investigation into the energy market earlier this year Ofgem identified a number of areas where it said customers were being charged tariffs which were not justified by the costs of the service to the supplier. Among the areas where it called for action were the prices charged for pre-payment meters and for customers who were not connected to the gas grid and therefore were unable to benefit from companies's dual fuel offers.
It acknowledged the companies had already cut premiums in areas of concern by £300m and were looking for further reductions of at least £200m more.
Buchanan said: "We've seen encouraging signs since the end of our initial investigation but we demand more and quicker action for those customers currently losing out. And we are about to consult on new rules to end unfair pricing in future. If we are not satisfied with the suppliers' response we can, should we choose, go to the Competition Commission."
Ofgem's latest initiative comes at a time when the energy companies are under increasing pressure to pass on falls in gas and electricity prices in the wholesale markets to their retail customers.