MSE Consultation response to CMA energy market investigation

footyguy

The an official MSE thread hidden over on the campaigns board seeking responses to the MSE response to the above.

It's been there 5 days and only solicited one response (by a newbie) plus my response today having just uncovered it.

I thought perhaps some people here might like to chip in too?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5308084

naedanger

footyguy wrote: »

The an official MSE thread hidden over on the campaigns board seeking responses to the MSE response to the above.

It's been there 5 days and only solicited one response (by a newbie) plus my response today having just uncovered it.

I thought perhaps some people here might like to chip in too?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5308084

I imagine some people will be interested. That said it is probably worth noting that MSE have already made their submission and the deadline (of 5 August) has now passed.

https://assets.digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk/media/55a8c85be5274a6fea00000f/Notice_of_deadline_extension_-_PFs_and_Remedies_Notice.pdf

modsandmockers

Back in the heady old days of privatisation, it was taken for granted that a modern capitalist system of ownership could provide nothing but an improvement on the failed system of public ownership. But, imo, it simply hasn’t happened. The selling of energy to the public was quickly taken over, but more by opportunists than by capitalists. The number of headlines and complaints about the malpractices of the energy suppliers seems to be increasing at last, and that can only be a good thing. The huge bureaucracy of the regulatory authorities seems to be no better than the bureaucratic and ideological stranglehold which we all suffered from under public ownership. The fact that MSE has managed to produce eleven sides of A4 paper, large parts of which simply state the bleedin’ obvious, does not fill me with any hope of imminent improvement. Like the banks before them, the energy suppliers appear to be answering to no-one except themselves.

MSE appears to believe that the power to improve the consumer experience lies with the price comparison industry, in which it is itself is very major player. It wants to see more tariffs, and more price differentiation. The price comparison industry would certainly benefit from additional complications, but I’m not sure how they would help the customer. MSE says that ‘it is extremely important (that) people have the ability to compare all tariffs’ - I agree, but surely it would be easier with fewer tariffs rather than with more. And, of course, it would be a huge improvement if tariff prices were to be the first thing that potential customers were told (rather than the last). Once a customer has entered the postcode and been shown the tariff prices, then (if the customer chooses) let the estimates and personal projections begin - and it should be made clear that if the customer does not know his/her previous year’s consumption in kWh’s then any cost predictions will be highly unreliable.

MSE states that the ban on tiered tariffs should remain, but it seems not have worked out that the current system of variable standing charge tariffs is actually nothing more than a replacement form of the two-tier tariffs which were banned. If we have to have standing charges, then they should be fixed, and consumers would then only have to compare unit prices. Zero standing charge tariffs are useful for low users but, as my water supplier has recently decided, they don’t necessarily benefit the poor because people with multiple homes are also quite likely to be low users in each of their individual properties. My water supplier is replacing its zero standing charge tariff with a means-tested special tariff for qualifying customers.

Many of the industry practices which MSE describes are simply poor business practices that would not happen in a competitive environment. The best examples are the large debit balances which are allowed to accrue, and the late production of final bills - how many modern businesses would wait several months before issuing a final bill? But MSE is not convinced that lack of competition is the root cause of the energy suppliers’ poor management methods. MSE seems to prefer the idea of price regulation, but it seems to me that price regulation would simply give the suppliers even less incentive to offer a decent customer experience.