Energy Suppliers make businesses suffer
More businesses are being refused energy supplies or are being forced to accept punitive credit terms, reports Bobby Collinson for utilityweek.co.uk.
The issue is caused by businesses who, are finding themselves struggling to operate due to the current harsh financial climate, then as a resulting factor are being compounded by the actions of the energy supply and credit markets – where in an effort to protect themselves from rising levels of business insolvencies, the energy suppliers have begun to rely on a simple pass or fail approach to credit checks, which means that for business customers, finding an energy supplier offering competitive tariffs is even harder than before.
Energy suppliers and the three big credit insurance agencies are also being much tougher on customers too – as the number of companies failing credit checks is outstripping the number of firms that can be realistically considered to be heading for insolvency. Once a company fails the energy supplier can refuse to supply the customer altogether or they can choose to put them on an out-of-contract rate – which is usually twice as high as normal rates – if they are unable to obtain the services of other suppliers.
With this in mind, Andrew Bainbridge, chairman of energy procurement consultancy – Power Efficiency – and director general of the Major Energy Users’ Council, has set up the ECAG – Energy Credit Action Group – to tackle the government and Ofgem, the UK’s gas and electricity regulator, about the issue. ECAG has already held working groups with energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband in a bid to encourage action to prevent this situation from continuing.
Full source article;
http://www.utilityweek.co.uk/features/uk/suppliers-credit-terms-too-tou.php