Fewer people switching gas and electric suppliers

29 June 2012 16:09:39

Fewer people are switching, new figures show.

There has been a significant fall in the number of people switching gas and electric suppliers, government figures show. This is despite the fact that household energy bills are high at the moment, suggesting that consumers are unsure which way to turn. This is highlighted by the fact that two energy suppliers have just announced tariff changes, with one increasing their prices and the other lowering theirs.

Switching activity 'lower than ever'
Comparison sites have made it easier than ever for people to compare gas and electric prices, but it seems that many consumers are so disillusioned with the energy industry that they are failing to take advantages of the savings that are available to them. New figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) indicate that the number of people switching their supplier fell by 25% between the first three months of 2011 and the same period in 2012. Just 746,000 people switched in Q1 2012, compared with 994,000 in Q1 2011.

Gas switching was particularly affected, with the average rate of transfers to different suppliers falling by 33%. According to the DECC, the figures confirm that the number of customers switching supplier "has generally decreased in comparison to previous years".

Consumers unsure where to turn
One of the problems is that it's not really obvious which way energy prices are going. Ovo Energy has just lowered its two fixed-rate tariffs by 4.5%, effective from June 29th 2012. According to the energy company, the average UK household will now pay £1,088.09 per year on its New Energy dual fuel tariff, compared with an average of £1,162 with one of the 'Big Six' providers - British Gas, EDF Energy, E.ON, npower, Scottish Power and SSE.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Ovo Energy's managing director, said the company was passing on savings from buying energy on the wholesale market to its customers "as quickly as we can". However, the opposite seems to be happening at First Utility, which has just announced a price rise that will mean a £100+ increase in the cost of the average customer's annual gas and electric bill.

All of this means it can be hard for customers to predict the direction their bills will go in over the coming months and highlights the importance of checking prices on a regular basis to see if you could be saving money with a different supplier.

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