Tuesday 20 September 2011

Consumer groups hail Huhne’s ‘hard hitting’ measures

Consumer groups have welcomed the Energy Secretary's "hard hitting" measures against the Big Six. Chris Huhne announced today that Ofgem, the energy regulator, is to be given more teeth.

Ann Robinson at uSwitch.com said that Ofgem now had the chance to get tougher. The customer champion's Director of Consumer Policy said: "The hard hitting and meaningful measures announced by Chris Huhne today will allow Ofgem to take its gloves off and will make it even easier for consumers to reject price rises by shopping around for a better deal."

Scrapping the "baffling array of tariffs" will save people money, added Mike O'Connor, Chief Executive at Consumer Focus. He said: "Moves towards simpler charging, clearer bills, quicker switching and power for the regulator to put money back into consumers' pockets when firms break the rules, would all help customers."

But Mr O'Connor said it would take time for change to happen: "This is not a sector that will be transformed quickly. We believe that there are deep seated issues about the very structure of the market that may need to be addressed either through the competition commission or some other expert and authoritative scrutiny."

Other Huhne stories:

Green scepticism of Huhne crackdown

npower boss reacts to Huhne’s criticism of Big Six

Huhne branded ‘dangerous liability’