Govt Calls Energy Summit To Reduce Bills
The Government is meeting with the Big Six energy companies today as part of an Energy Summit designed to help reduce energy bills before the winter sets in.
The Six Big energy companies which include British Gas, E.ON, EDF Energy and Scottish Power will meet consumer groups and the regulator Ofgem this morning as part of an energy summit organised by the energy secretary to discuss gas and electricity prices.
The Prime Minister, Mr Cameron, said the government needs to work to bring down energy bills. Before today’s meeting Mr Cameron said “Our intention is for today’s summit to be the start of a much more active engagement with consumers, with us all working harder and faster to deliver an energy market that is trusted, simple and transparent”.
While British Gas and npower have promised not to raise energy prices again this year the managing director of British Gas, Phil Bentley, said that energy prices will keep on rising because the cost of gas on the wholesale gas market keeps increasing.
Mr Bentley said “We are importing 50% of the gas that comes into Britain and we are having to compete for sources from the Middle East – Japan is importing huge amounts of gas on ships and that was gas that used to come into the UK market”.
On Friday Utility Exchange reported that Ofgem announced that profit margins for energy firms had increased to £125 per customer although this was disputed by the energy providers themselves.
The energy secretary, Chris Huhne, said consumers had the power to compare energy prices and switch providers. Doing this he said could save them as much as £200. There are still thousands of people who don’t compare energy prices and switch provider and this also applies to businesses too. It’s vital that firms compare business electricity prices and gas prices too – it’s amazing the number of businesses which don’t compare energy prices.
Mr Huhne said that energy companies were trying to make a profit and that it was “important that we in the Government work with Ofgem to make sure that these are genuinely fair and competitive markets”.