9% of Market Now in Small Suppliers’ Hands

Energy UK’s latest report on the energy market has revealed that smaller energy suppliers are taking a larger share than ever of the market from the Big 6. The report, undertaken by Cornwall Energy, also revealed that there are more energy suppliers than ever active in the market. The October update showed: The market share […]

No Surprises in Latest Big 6 Complaint Statistics

The latest complaint statistics for the Big 6 energy suppliers continues its tale of woe. Whilst nPower remained rooted to the bottom of the table with 648 complaints per 100,000 customers, this was actually a reduction from 665 in the first quarter of 2014. Still though this represents a huge figure, nearly three times the […]

Energy Generation Sources Battle Cheapest Claim

Mirror mirror on the wall, what’s the cheapest of them all EU analysis has claimed to prove the cheapest source of energy once external factors like air quality; human toxicity and climate change are taken into account. The report is controversial in that its results can and are, being read in different ways enabling alternate […]

October SMI from Ofgem

Supply Market Indicators In our regular monthly review of Ofgem’s Supply Market Indicators we focus on October’s release from the energy regulator. October 2014 The October 2014 SMI from Ofgem reported that: They estimate that the average annual dual fuel bill has fallen slightly for the next 12 months remains broadly in line with last month at […]

Environment Agency Boss to Run Driller Backed Fracking ‘Task Force’

Lord Smith of Finsbury, the former Labour cabinet minister and former chairman of the Environment Agency is to head a “task force” into investigating the benefits and risks of fracking. Rather underwhelmingly Smith said the task force would: “Go some way to answering important questions and tackling legitimate concerns [about fracking]”. This was followed by […]

Ofgem Announce Investigation into BES

Ofgem have announced a wide ranging investigating into the compliance of “BES” with regards its “obligations under the gas and electricity supply licences”. Ofgem explained that BES Commercial Electricity Ltd (electricity supplier) and Business Energy Solutions Ltd (gas supplier) were the subject of an investigation as to: “Whether BES (encompassing both licensees) is complying with […]

Ofgem (TPI) Working Group Oct-14

The Ofgem Third party intermediary (TPI) working group met for their 2nd session on 20th October following the initial scoping phase in September 2014. The session brought a little more clarity to the future arrangements of a TPI “code”. Below we summarise the key ‘outcomes’ to date. No formal decision has been taken by Ofgem […]

Energy Ombudsman’s Busy Year Gets Busier

The energy ombudsman has received 37,061 cases between January and September this year, three times the number in 2013, 97% of which were found to be valid resulting in compensation or an apology from the energy supplier. Lewis Shand Smith, the energy ombudsman said: “The aftermath of the recession, coupled with intense political and public […]

Ofgem’s War on Profit and the Causes of Profit

Ofgem have announced their latest attempt to force energy suppliers to provide transparent information around their profits amid on-going scepticism from the regulator that figures provided represent a full picture. Despite Dermot Nolan, Chief Executive of Ofgem’s claim to want principle and not prescriptive based regulation, his organisation has moved to further entrench the exact […]

EU and Unions Blow to SMEs

Holiday Pay to Include Commission Following British Gas Case In an EU ruling to send a shiver down the spine of UK SMEs, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) earlier this year ruled that workers had a ‘right’ to claim for holiday pay and overtime that takes account of gross earnings including commission and not […]