Monday 27 June 2011

Energy market dubbed "crazy"

The energy market has been dubbed "crazy" and "confusing" by the head of Which?.

The boss of the price comparison and consumer campaign group said that the way the system worked was "completely bewildering" for consumers.

Richard Lloyd, Executive Director of Which? told Radio 5Live: "There's a real case of consumer confusion. People don't understand their bills, or how the market works. It's completely bewildering how this system works."

Suppliers and providers are often one and the same which meant they could keep prices higher than they needed, claimed Mr Lloyd.

He said: "The crazy thing is that a lot of the wholesale suppliers are the same as the retailers. They sell the gas and electricity to themselves. What they do is they say it's the wholesale prices that are meaning we've got to put your bills up. What they're not doing is putting bills down as fast when the wholesale prices fall."

Over the weekend, Energy Secretary Chris Huhne wrote to energy bosses to ask them to give clearer information to customers. If not, he threatened that the Government would be forced to include specific rules in the Energy Bill, which is being drafted at the moment.