Three of the ‘big six’ backtrack on fixed price energy bills
Siobhan Kennedy
Washington Correspondent
Energy companies reacted with horror to Labour’s pledge to freeze energy bills, saying the move would result in blackouts. But just days later three of the big six are now offering fixed energy bills.
Ed Miliband’s flagship policy announcement during the Labour party conference was a pledge to freeze energy bills for two years, if the party is elected in 2015.
The promise was an attempt to tackle rising energy bills, now at a record high of an average £1,315 a year, alongside profit gains for the six main companies.
And it was met with warnings of blackouts, lack of investment and bankruptcy by energy companies, who said the move would cause the market to collapse.
But just days later, three of the main energy companies are using Labour’s pledge to market their new pricing tariffs until 2017. Npower, Scottish Power and EDF have all said they can offer fixed price tariffs until 2017, and Npower’s slogan even went so far as to say: “Why wait for Ed?”
‘Scaremongering’
Labour pounced on the turnaround, saying it showed the companies’ were “scaremongering”. Caroline Flint MP, Labour’s Shadow Energy and Climate Change Secretary, said: “The fact that three of the Big 6 energy companies are now advertising deals to let people fix their energy bills until 2016 or 2017 shows that all the warnings about blackouts were nothing more than scaremongering.
“Hard-pressed consumers and businesses have been paying over the odds for their energy for too long. David Cameron should act now to stop these companies imposing more price rises this winter.”
The big six – Centrica, EDF, npower, SSE, E.ON and Scottish Power – have also faced accusations that they are quick to raise bills when the wholesale price increases but slow to track
The energy companies declined to comment on the new deals offered, but told Channel 4 News that fixed tariffs work by customers paying slightly more each month – around £7 – for a combined gas and electricity bill between now and 2017.
But they said that these deals are only on offer to a specific number of customers – not universally.
The department of energy and climate change said that at end of quarter 3 2012, 2.52m gas customers and 3.02m electricity customers were on fixed tariffs.