Energy switching reaches record high as customers’ bills balloon
Nationalising the UK’s energy infrastructure will jeopardise the country’s energy transition and could drive up prices, the head of the sector’s trade body has said as record numbers of households switched suppliers last month.
More customers switched energy supplier in April than ever before after average bills leapt up by £117 for millions of customers as Ofgem raised its price cap, Energy UK said today.
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“These record switching figures show competition is thriving with more suppliers providing customers choice and driving competitive prices,” the trade body’s chief executive Lawrence Slade told City PM
“Any unnecessary … restructure or move to state ownership would jeopardise this investment at a critical time for the UK’s energy transition and could result in increased costs.”
His comments come days after the Labour Party revealed plans to nationalise the sector at below market value. It said that nationalisation could drive down prices and encourage the roll-out of renewables.
Today’s figures show that more than 668,000 households moved to another provider in April, a 34 per cent jump year-on-year.
Switching services and challenger suppliers that price below the cap used last month’s hike to reach out to customers, urging them to swap providers and save money.
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Today’s figures are the clearest indication yet that their messaging hit home, bringing the total number of switches to over 2m for the year to date, an 18 per cent jump.
“There can be no question that this is a direct reaction to the increase in the level of the price cap and subsequent wave of eye-watering price rises, which took effect on 1 April,” said Uswitch energy expert Rik Smith.