ONE of the Big Six energy firms is to speed up the time it takes to refer complaints from dissatisfied customers to the Ombudsman.

SSE claims that its decision to reduce the time for referrals from eight weeks to six from next month is a first for the industry.

The company says that it has consistently low referral rates but this should ensure speedier examination of any issue.

Tony Keeling, SSE's director of customer service and sales, said: "We view one complaint as one too many, so we work very hard to resolve our customers' problems and as a result we consistently have, proportionately, the lowest number of Ombudsman complaints in the industry.

"But we want to keep improving our standards, so from April 1 we will be referring customers' complaints to the Ombudsman after six weeks instead of eight to make sure they get a quicker resolution to any issues. We'd encourage all suppliers to follow our lead."

He said SSE was putting customers first by reducing its referral period so they could be assured they would have any issues dealt with in a shorter timescale.

It was the latest in a number of standard-setting initiatives from SSE, including its "unique" customer service money-back guarantee and commitment not to cold call customers, "going above and beyond regulatory requirements", he said.

It was the first to announce a move away from cold calling customers.

Last week SSE repaid £100,000 after the energy watchdog found that the company overcharged fees at six of its power stations.

Ofgem said it levied the penalty because SSE, which serves around four and a half million households, received excessive constraint payments from the UK's energy network operator National Grid.