AS Budget Day dawns, the word that will be on everyone's lips is "austerity".
Today the Chancellor will announce deep cuts to the welfare budget, with social housing payments and the benefits cap firmly in his sights. It is all the more galling, therefore, that British households seemingly have money to burn - to the tune of around of £1.2 billion a year.
That is the figure which, according to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), is the amount by which we have been overpaying for our domestic energy, and it is nothing short of a disgrace.
The CMA, reporting on its year-long inquiry into the energy sector, found that between 2009 and 2013, the big six suppliers - British Gas, E-On, Npower, EDF Energy, Scottish Power and SSE - collectively operated tariffs that were around five per cent higher than they should have been. Citing "widespread consumer disengagement", with around 70 per cent of customers on default standard variable rate tariffs despite better deals being available, it reported that dual fuel customers could on average save £160 a year by switching suppliers.
Therein lies a problem. Cheaper prices are available to those who are consumer savvy, well educated and computer literate.
Changing suppliers is without doubt a hassle. To assess the best offers, ideally one should first be aware of how much energy one uses, and what one has been paying for it, so having access to a stack of previous bills is advantageous; smart meters may be the next big thing, but they too require a deal of knowledge to be operated satisfactorily. And all this presupposes that one has the time and resources to engage with comparison websites - which cannot be taken for granted. A recent survey found that nearly one-third of Scottish households do not have access to broadband in the home; in Glasgow that figure rises to nearly 40 per cent.
A way must be found for the best deals to be clearly explained and available to as many consumers as is possible; the big six have much work do to in this regard. It should not be difficult for them to put their heads together in this regard. They seem expert in collusion in most other fields of operation.
It will come as a disappointment to some that the CMA has not recommended that the big six should be dismantled to separate power generation and supply, stating that competition in the wholesale gas and electricity generation markets works well and "the presence of vertically integrated firms does not have a detrimental impact on competition." This position should be kept under careful review.
The CMA, however, deserves praise for its imaginative suggestion of a proposed "safeguard" price cap, under which those who do not switch suppliers or tariffs at the end of their current contract would automatically move to a default tariff, to be set either by the CMA or by regulator Ofgem. The idea, though, seems already to have been already dismissed by the Government; this stance is to be lamented. Affordable lighting and heating should be available to all, not just those who are able to negotiate an online obstacle course.
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