CONSUMER groups have welcomed a move by one of Britain's big-six energy suppliers to stop cold-calling potential customers.

SSE and its energy supply brands Southern Electric, Scottish Hydro and Swalec will only contact present customers or potential consumers who have agreed to a call, the company said.

It makes three million cold calls a year, but Will Morris, SSE's group managing director, retail, insisted the decision to end the practice showed the firm was dedicated to delivering what customers wanted.

A spokeswoman from watchdog Consumer Futures said: "This is good news from SSE. The impact of nuisance calls on consumers can range from inconvenience to genuine stress.

"It is a victory for common sense as it does not make good business sense to badger potential customers. We now need to see other suppliers follow suit."

Which? executive director Richard Lloyd said: "Our research shows the energy industry is one of the main culprits for cold calling, so it's good to see a big supplier commit itself to ending unsolicited sales calls, and we hope other energy companies will now also stop this nuisance."

The industry is coming under increasing pressure to stop the cold-calling of potential customers and just last week Finance Secretary John Swinney said an independent Scotland would introduce tougher regulations on the sector to protect consumers.

The SNP would consider introducing a mandatory code of business practice which would include ensuring regulators could levy penalties on rogue companies, and legal requirements on firms to prove they had been given consent for carrying out cold calls.

SSE highlighted research by Which? that found eight out of 10 people asked had received an unsolicited call in the past month, and 8% had received 50 or more. One-quarter said they felt intimidated by cold calls.

In April, SSE customers were urged to seek compensation from the company after energy watchdog Ofgem announced the giant utility was to be fined £10.5 million for prolonged and extensive mis-selling.

Ofgem said it found failures at every stage of the sales process across SSE's telephone, in-store and doorstep selling .

The decision to stop cold-calling potential customers will affect around 100 jobs, with the company saying it intends to redeploy 70 employees in Thatcham, Berkshire, and around 30 back-office staff in St Mellons, Cardiff, to other jobs in the business wherever possible.

A small team will be established to deal with incoming calls from potential customers, but they will not make unsolicited outgoingcalls, the company said.

Mr Morris said: "Nobody likes receiving a sales call out of the blue and so we are stopping it.

"It doesn't matter that other energy companies still do it, or other industries for that matter.

"Cold-calling is not something a company like SSE, committed to providing an excellent customer experience, should be doing any longer."