Contact: Mike Potter, Communications and Campaigns Officer at NEA
Mobile: 07595410756 or email: michael.potter@nea.org.uk to arrange further comment
Today (23th July 2021) the UK Government launched its new Energy Retail Market Strategy. The strategy sets out plans to bring forward new legislation to allow the cap to continue beyond 2023 if needed, so that consumers who do not shop around for the best deals on their energy.
Peter Smith, Director of Policy and Advocacy at National Energy Action, comments:
“It is vital that the energy market works for the most vulnerable consumers and they pay a fairer price for their gas and electricity. Over the past 5 years, we have seen the positive impacts that price caps can have, providing transparency of costs and ensuring that low-income households are not contributing towards inflated profit margins. These proposals would ensure that the Government retains the option of protecting prices beyond the current end date of 2023. It could also offer an opportunity to consider deeper protection for the most vulnerable customers and those using legacy prepayment meters. It is imperative that the Government takes the opportunity to bring forward new legislation, exercises its new powers and strengthens protections for the most vulnerable customers who currently face a vicious cocktail of higher prices, lower incomes and soaring inflation.”
NOTES FOR EDITORS
- NEA works across England, Wales and Northern Ireland to ensure that everyone in the UK can afford to live in a warm, dry home. To achieve this, it aims to improve access to energy and debt advice, provide training, support energy efficiency policies, local projects and co-ordinate other related services which can help change lives.
- The UK Government’s Energy Retail Market Strategy, released on the 23rd July 2021, describes how, by setting a framework that incentivises energy companies to innovate for and engage with their customers, the Government will work with the market to take consumers on the journey to a net-zero energy system. To see the Energy Retail Market Strategy please visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/energy-retail-market-strategy-for-the-2020s
