UK Energy Market

Debate between Julian Knight and Dan Poulter

Wednesday 9th March 2016 Westminster Hall

[Dr Daniel Poulter (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered competition in the UK energy market.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first time, Mr Percy. Energy prices and the challenges facing the energy market—perhaps the failure of the energy market—are issues that have vexed consecutive Governments for many years. The challenges we face in tackling the behaviour of the big six energy companies were most recently illustrated by the debacle of the Age UK-E.ON energy tariff. Age UK offered its customers a tariff with E.ON—one of the big six companies—which was not the best deal on the market and cost them many hundreds of pounds more than they needed to pay. That is an example of the big six energy companies’ behaviour. I have a good impression of Age UK from my engagement with both the local organisation in Suffolk and the national charity, which campaigns for the needs of older people. That tariff is an example of one of the big six energy companies behaving poorly and not offering good value for money for customers.

An important review of the energy market will be published tomorrow, so this debate is timely. It gives us an opportunity to talk about the challenges we face in developing a sustainable energy market that serves customers and looks after the most vulnerable—people on fixed incomes, people in social housing, older people and people who are in fuel poverty.

The energy sector faces three sometimes conflicting pressures, which we often call the “energy trilemma”. First, since the liberalisation of the domestic gas and electricity markets at about the turn of the century, energy customers have grown accustomed to relatively cheap energy. More recently—particularly since the recession —many households have struggled with energy bills and the cost of heating their homes due to increases in energy prices.

Secondly, the UK’s future energy requirements are an increasingly pressing challenge. The Department of Energy and Climate Change—the Minister may talk about this later—estimates that electricity capacity in the UK will need to grow in the long term, as demand is likely to increase by between 30% and 100% by 2050.

Thirdly, and rightly, the UK committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% by 2050 under the Climate Change Act 2008. That Act, which set out steps towards the decarbonisation of the British economy, was underpinned by cross-party support. When it was enacted in 2008, the right hon. Member for Doncaster North (Edward Miliband) was the Energy Secretary, and the Prime Minister, who was then the leader of the Opposition, gave the support of Her Majesty’s Opposition to that important measure.

In short, energy must become low carbon while remaining affordable to consumers and attractive to investment and investors. That is the energy trilemma. It has perhaps been made slightly less challenging in recent months by the fall in the global oil price and the lower fuel costs for many customers. Certainly, the cost of kerosene—the fuel that many of my constituents use for home heating—is at a record low level.

Since 2008, Governments and the energy regulator, Ofgem, have sought to reduce the barriers to effective competitiveness in the gas and electricity markets, particularly for supplies to domestic customers. Up until now, the main aims of the regulatory interventions have been to ensure that the wholesale and retail gas and electricity markets are competitive. For retail consumers, the aim has been to make tariffs simpler, clearer and fairer and to reduce the complexity that previously dogged pricing in the energy market. The various interventions culminated in 2014 when Ofgem requested that the Competition and Markets Authority conduct an energy market investigation. Referring the matter to the CMA was intended to secure a once-and-for-all investigation as to whether there were further barriers to competition in the energy market, because the CMA had the more extensive powers with which to address the issue of big, long-term structural barriers.

In the course of the CMA investigation to date, the authority has published a large volume of evidence on its website, including more than 100 submissions from interested parties and transcripts of 30 hearings with industry participants and other important groups. In the provisional findings, which were published on 7 July 2015, the CMA suggested a range of adverse effects on competition in the energy market, as well as areas that did not give rise to such effects. The key provisional CMA findings were that a range of problems is hindering competition in the market, including the extent to which consumers are engaged in it and the shortcomings of the regulatory framework to support active consumer engagement.

The CMA also found that customers are not taking advantage of switching suppliers. Dual-fuel customers could save an average of £160 a year by switching to a cheaper deal, again highlighting behaviour of the big six of which we are too well aware. Furthermore, about 70% of customers are on the default standard variable tariff, despite the presence of generally cheaper fixed-rate deals.

The CMA outlined that regulatory interventions designed to simplify prices, such as the four-tariff rule, are not having the desired effect. A lack of transparency is hampering trust in the sector and, as I am sure that Members in the Chamber today know, a good example of that is the scandal exposed by the Select Committee on Energy and Climate Change in the previous Parliament, under its then Chair, Tim Yeo. The price comparison websites were only advertising deals that they were sponsored to advertise, so some of the very best deals were not available to the people using the websites. Every step of the way, there has been a lack of pricing transparency, even on the part of the price comparison websites. The history of the big six energy companies is far from one of benefiting the consumer.

Competition in the wholesale gas and electricity generation markets can work well—according to the CMA provisional report—but the presence of vertically integrated firms does not necessarily have a detrimental impact on competition.

[Julian Knight (Solihull) (Con)]

My hon. Friend is making an important contribution and I congratulate him on securing the debate. I understand about the failings in the aggregator and price comparison sites sector, which we need to be aware of, but competition in the energy market has made some progress. In 2010, 99% of the domestic market was shared by the big six, but we now have more than 30 providers and independent suppliers having 30% of households. Does he recognise that there has been progress, and that we just need more and at a quicker pace?

[Dr Poulter]

There has been progress, but it has been among empowered consumers. The most vulnerable consumers—such as people on fixed incomes, pensioners and those who live in the poorest housing, are unemployed, have mental illness and people who are sometimes the least able to advocate for themselves—might not even have engaged with the internet, which plays an important part in supporting consumer choice. Such lack of engagement is not true of all older people, but it is of some. Such consumers have not been engaged in the energy market and we have a duty to look after them, in particular those who live in fuel poverty. In that respect, there is ongoing market failure, and that needs to change.

May I develop my earlier point, which is key? As I am sure my hon. Friend is aware, this was picked up in the recent Which? report. Despite the CMA investigation and its provisional findings of last year, the behaviour of the big six energy companies seems to remain unchanged, profoundly uncompetitive and certainly not in the best interests of vulnerable consumers. Ahead of the final conclusions of the CMA’s investigation into the energy market, which I hope and understand will be published tomorrow, the latest Which? research has revealed that the recent price cuts announced by the big six energy companies are dwarfed by the savings that customers could be making by switching to an alternative provider.

Customers on the standard tariffs of the big six providers save only £30 a year from the recently announced cuts, which is a 5% reduction for those on a standard single-fuel gas tariff and only a 2.6% reduction for those on a standard dual-fuel deal—the cuts applied only to gas, not to electricity. The same customers, however, would save a massive £400 a year if they were to switch to the cheapest dual-fuel deal on the market, or £260 a year for the cheapest gas-only tariff. Clearly, there are still problems with and concerns about the behaviour of the big six energy companies, in spite of the provisional CMA report.

That is why a number of not-for-profit energy collectives such as the Big Deal have sprung up to support consumers to get better energy deals. According to Government estimates—I am sure the Minister will correct me if I am wrong—only 12% of customers switch their gas provider, with seven in 10, or 71% of gas customers stuck on standard tariffs and nine in 10, or 88% of households still with the big six. The forthcoming energy inquiry must therefore make it easier for customers to engage with the energy market and to switch to a better deal.

Consumers include the most vulnerable people who live in our constituencies, in particular the elderly, pensioners and people who live in social housing and private rented accommodation—frequently in some of the worst and least energy-efficient accommodation. They are the poorest consumers, often living in fuel poverty, and they are paying the biggest price for the failure of the energy market.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Poulter]

The Front Benchers can speculate why the benefits of the reductions in costs for the energy suppliers are not being passed on to consumers, because they are clearly not being. The money is going somewhere, but not to consumers’ pockets. If we genuinely want to have an energy market that has the trust of the public and protects those people who are perhaps not engaged with it effectively, something different needs to happen. The money is going somewhere, but not to the people to whom we want to see it going, and that is what a market mechanism is designed to do—to benefit the consumer.

[Julian Knight]

I was in conversation with Npower today, because it is a major employer in my constituency and I had concerns about the job losses that were announced. Npower told me that, in effect, the industry is running on a profit margin of about 4% to 5%; by comparison, Tesco and Sainsbury’s normally look at about double that figure. So a huge profit margin is not in place and perhaps where the disconnect—excuse the pun—comes in is in areas such as prepayment meters, where vulnerable groups are paying over the odds for their energy, compared with more everyday and active consumers.

[Dr Poulter]

My hon. Friend is right. Indeed, I have raised that point. You quite rightly kicked off the debate a little earlier than we had anticipated, Mr Percy, because the previous debate came to an early end, and in my opening remarks I alluded to exactly that point in relation to E.ON’s recent Age UK tariff, which was an uncompetitive deal compared with some provided by other big six energy providers—I give some of them credit in that respect. It was about £140 more expensive than the best big six deal at the time. That exploited the good will of Age UK and of its customers, who would have expected that Age UK would provide them with the best deal available, which it clearly was not. That has further damaged the reputation of the big six and how they can use their market position to the detriment of the customers they purport to serve.

[Julian Knight]

My point related more to prepayment meters, which are topped up at shops or other retailers, but people find that they go into emergency credit and end up paying far more for their energy. My hon. Friend is making some valuable points, but I wonder whether there is an acute difficulty only in small areas of the market, with overall profit margins being relatively low.

[Dr Poulter]

My hon. Friend is right to make that point about pre-payment meters. In that situation we are often dealing with some of the poorest energy consumers who can least afford to pay, but who pay a lot more for their energy as a result of those meters. I am sure the Minister will want to comment on that. Citizens Advice gave evidence to the Energy and Climate Change Committee on the importance of protecting vulnerable consumers and ensuring that they are not left behind by an energy market that benefits more informed, internet-savvy consumers. We need to protect those who by dint of social circumstance—they may not be very well off, or they may be in difficult circumstances—may not have the same opportunities as others to choose where they live. They may have to deal with pre-payment meters, which I am sure none of us would choose for ourselves. There is clearly a role for the Government in looking at how to protect vulnerable consumer groups.