Energy giants welcome results of watchdog's prices probe

The City’s energy giants have welcomed a long-awaited report into the market by the competition watchdog amid campaigners’ claims they have been let off the hook.

Shares in quoted players SSE and British Gas-owner Centrica rose and chief executive of the latter, Iain Conn, said the “majority” of recommendations to the pair — and to rivals EDF, npower, E.ON and Scottish Power — would benefit users.

SSE shares opened up 1% at 1484p while Centrica rose 1.4% to 230p.

The Competition and Markets Authority proposes to cap gas and electricity prices temporarily for the UK’s four million poorest households on pre-payment meters.

The CMA said customers have been overpaying by around £1.7 billion a year and an Ofgem-run database of customers who haven’t switched in three years will be made available to rival suppliers and comparison sites to see if any better deals can be offered.

“The six largest suppliers have learned to take many of their existing domestic customers for granted,” said Roger Witcomb, chairman of the CMA’s energy market investigation.

He claimed that allowing competing suppliers and price comparison websites to alert customers to the savings they can make “will shake up the industry”.

Witcomb added the regulator must ensure that releasing customer data will help people switch from the most expensive tariffs to better deals, rather than result in more nuisance calls.

Energy secretary Amber Rudd said “this is a wake-up call to the Big Six”.