Standing charges, broken smart meters and more – Energy Secretary responds to Martin Lewis

MSE_Molly_G

Energy Secretary Claire Coutinho has responded to calls from MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) founder Martin Lewis to address high standing charges, fix broken smart meters and tackle the lack of competition in energy switching.

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Standing charges, broken smart meters and more – Energy Secretary responds after Martin Lewis raised critical issues

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The_Green_Hornet

I think Mr Lewis would be better off speaking to Ed Miliband.

wrf12345

On the surface, at least, looks like there might be some action on s/c's but Ofgem has been so against consumer interests that it really needs to be closed down in disgrace...

Sparky3366

a big issue that I’ve found over the past five years that a lot of people aren’t aware of concerns the problems of energy companies not supplying Accessible In Home Displays for blind and visually impaired customers. I had to change suppliers six times in a year in order to get a company that will actually fit one of these talking displays. They all said that they did on the initial sign up but it was a different thing when I actually switched. 

All I want is to be able to see how much credit I have on my pre pay smart meter. Other non disabled customers can so why not me? The technology is in place and has been for years now…

stupot_4

Martin.  Respect your efforts as always but this reply quoting “expects” and “low as possible” are as always just a sound bite aren’t they.  There are no words like demanded a report on how they will be reduced in the next 18 months or fixed to 90% in the case of so called smart meters.  It’s so wushu washy it’s comical that they expect us to fall for it still.  

powerful_Rogue

Presuming in the letter broken smart meters refers to the In Home Display - If so, had to take this very seriously.

MattMattMattUK

Sparky3366 said:

a big issue that I’ve found over the past five years that a lot of people aren’t aware of concerns the problems of energy companies not supplying Accessible In Home Displays for blind and visually impaired customers. I had to change suppliers six times in a year in order to get a company that will actually fit one of these talking displays. They all said that they did on the initial sign up but it was a different thing when I actually switched. 

All I want is to be able to see how much credit I have on my pre pay smart meter. Other non disabled customers can so why not me? The technology is in place and has been for years now…

In general the energy suppliers do not supply In Home Displays at all if/when the initial one stops working. I was initially with British Gas (new build, incumbent supplier) and the initial IHD stopped working after a few weeks, British Gas refused to supply a new one. I moved to EDF for two years they would not send me one, then in the third year they sent me four, but at a point when they knew their ability to enrol IHDs was broken. I eventually (when my fix ended) went to Octopus and I do not have a standard IHD, but I do have the Octopus Home Mini which integrates with their app.

With a smart meter you should be able to see full balances and top up via an app, is your suppliers app accessible or does it not have accessible access? 

SHSH1

I read the reply from the MP. When changes are reported that Government want to make choice and price the priority there are a group of people who are in mobile home sites who are domestic customers. We have individual meters but the site owner has a commercial invoice and we are billed commercially not as domestic. We are currently paying 59.9p kWh which is unsustainable to keep paying every month. We have no choice can’t change supplier or be subject to any price cap. Government needs to be seriously looking at changing this to allow a choice or forcing the utility company to bill us as domestic. Carry on the good work Martin.

benferry

Agree with the many sentiments about Ofgem, they are useless, as is the whole issue of regulatory bodies that have no teeth or are filled with cronies.  When they need to put prices is up, it happens instantly but never when the reverse of lowering prices is applicable. Delay and obfuscate is there role, to promote the idea of accountability when none is in place. Writing letters achieves nothing accept playing their game. 

spot1034

benferry said:

Agree with the many sentiments about Ofgem, they are useless, as is the whole issue of regulatory bodies that have no teeth or are filled with cronies.  When they need to put prices is up, it happens instantly but never when the reverse of lowering prices is applicable. Delay and obfuscate is there role, to promote the idea of accountability when none is in place. Writing letters achieves nothing accept playing their game. 

In fairness it should be pointed out that when wholesale prices were rising rapidly a couple of winters ago, these much higher prices were not passed on to consumers for many months - in those days the price cap only changed every six months, and suppliers found themselves obliged to offer the standard variable tariff at a very significant loss. 

BlueNomad

So Energy installed a Smart Meter in our house in September 2023 and it still doesn't work. They've been unable to commission it due to 'signal issues' despite 4 attempts and we can't use it as a traditional meter as we're Economy 7 - according to the engineer you can only get 1 reading off the main unit of the smart meter. He says we need to go back to the old-style meter but So Energy won't supply them anymore. So Energy have no solutions but we can't switch because another supplier won't touch us without a functioning meter. We're in total limbo but also trying to sell our house at the same time! I've tried the ombudsman but they don't have teeth. Can anybody help?