“The Tory Government is loading the cost of private failure onto our fuel bill,” claims a local Lib Dem Councillor.
“The energy markets that underlie our household gas and electricity bills are inefficient, expensive and poorly regulated”, claims the Liberal Democratic County Councillor for Tring & the Villages, Nick Hollinghurst.
“Many of the supply firms which operate the retail energy market have run overloaded with debt and with weak balance sheets for years. Some suppliers are said to have built up debts of as much as £58m. Four have collapsed in the last two months and there are concerns about a fifth. Ofgem appear not to have noticed.
“As a consequence, the surviving suppliers are being given permission to recover the cost of taking on the customers of failed suppliers at a surcharge of about £1.75 per domestic bill.
“All in all, British householders between them, face a total of £80m in surcharges to cover the costs of a transfer to a new supplier.”
He concluded, “As a former industrial salesman I would have thought that £1.75 was a small price to pay for acquiring a new customer – but no, the government is going to make the public pay for that. These Tories are so generous are they not? Giving the public’s money to their backers in industry!”