Ofgem – your ‘radical overhaul’ isn’t radical enough

For a start :
Display tariff details prominently on bills and in online account details.
Give different tariffs proper easily distinguished codes rather than long names which all seem the same!

Rather like the Irish man in the joke who, when asked how to get to London replied “Well, I wouldn’t start form here”, my response to this is that we are starting from the wrong angle: Energy tariffs should be fixed across all suppliers and there should be no question of switching suppliers to get a better rate. Additionally all suppliers should be legally obliged to supply all types of customer at the same rates, i.e. there should be no difference in what is charged if you pay by direct debit or by cheque, if you conduct your account on line or the traditional way, etc.

In other words, effectively, the energy supply industry should be renationalised.

I don’t see how, in a privatised, capitalist, “free” market, it is ever going to be possible to get the sort of transparency, fairness and ease that is being asked for: to have these things would be to make the market unattractive to shareholders and investors, so I think we are starting in the wrong place and expecting the impossible.

Sadly I don’t see any chance of any government renationalising either, so I reckon we may as well all resign ourselves to the fact we’ll never get a fair deal.

I don’t completely agree that every tariff should be the same. If I pay in full, on time by bank transfer and I provide the meter readings on line, and receive invoices by automated email, negating the need for any manpower whatsoever, I should get a discount and pay less.

Someone who does none of these has to have the regular services of a meter reader, has to have someone send out a bill, needs to have someone to send the red reminder and then needs the use of a bank teller to take the cash payment, etc. Why should I subsidise them?

However, I do agree that the cost per unit should be level across the board with automatic discounts for everyone for night usage.

If the suppliers don’t want to play fair, then we should be allowed to buy our energy futures to stabilise our future budgets with the suppliers taking the hits if the price rises.

Ofgem do not have the power to introduce radical changes against the wishes of the large power companies.
Ofgem should have the power to set the tariff for all domestic, small comercial and small industrial consumers and to ensure that large consumers are offered an economical tariff. The U K is a relatively small island and therefore there should be only two prices for any one category of consumer throughtout the land, including the islands.The two prices to be a twentyfour hour use and an off peak charge as at present.The aim of the price control would be to fix the tariffs for the following six months; changes would only be allowed if fuel costs increased and the current price became totaly uneconomic.The present NETA pricing system to be abondoned, generators would be required to submit their prices for the next month so that Ofgem could declare a variation in price, up or down, if justified.Coupled with this the utilities should be reformed by statute so that they have to be British companies, registered in this country and their shares changed to non voting bonds paying a maximum dividend of 5 pence per bond; they would also have the duty to ensure that the supply would be guranteed at all times to meet the present and future demand; Ofgem would also to have the same duty and to ensure that the price of electriciy was the most economical.In short the utilities would be required to place the good of the country before their companies interests.Ofgem in conjunction with National Grid would decide where and when new power stations and grid reinforcements were necessary. National Grid would become a subsiduary of Ofgem.
It should be established that essential utilities are controled by one overiding authority and not left in the hands of dozens of private companies who will to some extent put the interests of their
company before that of the country.
In addition all “carbon and so called environmental taxes ” should cease, Ofem should have the duty to ensure that the best interests of the country are implemented without the need for taxes of any form.
Similar arrangments should be applied to the water and supplies.

The issue can be sorted out quickly using the law, something that all the various quangos, regulators, watchdogs, etc, are incapable of doing – as enforcing the law would negate the need for said watchdogs, regulators, in effect, put them out of business!

If a company advertise a product or service and upon purchase, that price is not accurate or available, then the law states clearly that it is misrepresentation at the point of sale.
This falls under trading standards law using the sale of goods act.

Trading standards should enforce the law and prosecute the company advertising a price that is inaccurate, each and everytime it is reported to them by an individual.
Job done, simple.