Ofgem has recently introduced reforms in the gas and power industry aiming at improving the consumer experience for households and businesses. Recently gas and power consumers have been suffering from sky-high prices and poor services from energy suppliers.
With stricter reforms, Ofgem hopes to
- Do a full market review of supply to consumers
- Increase protection for purchases
- Strengthen competition between suppliers
- Safeguard non-domestics energy consumers
Businesses being overcharged
Ofgem hopes with these reforms they can stop businesses from being overcharged on deemed rate contracts. When businesses go out of contract with their supplier, they are put on deemed rates, which are amongst the highest prices energy suppliers offer.
As well as the unclear guidelines around deemed rates, some Suppliers have also overcharged businesses when it comes to government discounts. There have been many accounts of businesses not receiving government support passed down due to supplier faults. Ofgem plans to add changes to the industry to ensure businesses are not overpaying for their energy.
Ofgem reforms
During their review, Ofgem found areas of the market where they need to extend their powers to better protect consumers. To do this Ofgem will look into:
- Better complaint procedures between suppliers and businesses.
- Extending micro business protections to all businesses to ensure better guidelines for businesses.
- Better guidance when it comes to ending a business energy contract.
Ofgem has also included new reforms on energy suppliers to ensure we do not have a situation where we see so many of them going bust like we did in 2020-2021.
For certain businesses, extra protection is going to be provided. For example, care homes, social housing and mobile homes are expected to get more support.
Ofgem has also commented on customer care when it comes to suppliers. They have said that suppliers need to provide more customer care and have always set emergency procedures and contact lines open.
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