I was pleased to respond to the Government’s consultation on the regulation of third party intermediaries in the energy retail market this week.
This consultation focused primarily on the regulation of market actors such as energy brokers and price comparison websites. However, it also looked at the scope for strengthening protections for domestic consumers who purchase their energy from unlicensed “resellers”. This is particularly important for the residents of our many park home sites in Runnymede and Weybridge. The majority of these residents purchase their energy from the site owner through non-domestic contract “resale” arrangements.
The existing consumer protection regime governing provision of energy to most of these homes is completely unfit for purpose. Residents purchasing their energy from resellers such as site owners do not benefit from the industry standards and avenues for redress when things go wrong that consumers purchasing directly from licensed energy companies enjoy.
This leads to a number of serious challenges for park home owners, including:
- Inadequate transparency on how bills are calculated, especially for “additional” services such as meter readings and invoicing;
- Lack of effective avenues for escalating concerns and dispute resolution;
- Concerns over reliability of supply, especially for park home owners relying on liquid petroleum gas for heating and cooking;
- A lack of access to advice and support on managing energy costs and bills.
I very much welcomed the work of the previous Government and Ofgem in its consultations over recent years on increasing protections around this energy supply model. However, policy reform is now needed to address the long-standing concerns of park home owners in this area.
I have therefore called on the Government to look at ways to bring energy “resellers” within the scope of regulation to make sure that standards in relation to pricing, customer service and complaints handling are made consistent with the regime of protection that exists for consumers with direct contractual relationships with energy companies. You can view my full consultation response below.
If you have any concerns or are directly affected by the matters raised in my consultation response, you can contact me here: [email protected]
