Following pressure from Martin Lewis, energy firms could reveal secret cheap deals to ease the burden of day-to-day living. The MoneySavingExpert founder held crunch talks with providers after soaring bills put an even greater strain on families.
From October 2022, the average household will pay between £2,800 to £3,000 a year, but many energy companies can offer cheaper deals to existing customers over new ones.
However, many households are unaware of this and only find out by asking about it. It has been mooted that energy firm bosses are contemplating publishing all the details of their deals, reports the Mirror.
MoneySavingExpert said: "Energy suppliers agreed to explore publishing full tariff information for deals that are only available to their existing customers to allow everyone to make an informed choice on the best value tariff available to them and to enable third parties to be able to help with this decision."
The meeting was attended by Martin Lewis and representatives of Ovo, British Gas, Octopus, E.ON, EDF and Shell, as well as charities Citizens Advice, National Energy Action and StepChange. Energy companies did, though, not say they would cut their prices as a result of the meeting.
But they agreed to help customers in other ways. These include being more transparent about why energy bills are going up or down.
Energy firms are looking into setting up a priority call line for National Energy Action and StepChange, so that consumers who need energy help the most get it as quickly as possible. These firms also agreed to set up a single system of collecting debts for customers who cannot afford energy bills, alongside debt charities.
Energy firms will also design a single tool that will tell customers what help is available to them based on their circumstances. The group will meet again in September 2022, ahead of the planned increase to the energy price cap in October.
Martin Lewis said: "The aim of this meeting was to cut the c**p and get together with the leaders of the big firms, without government or regulators, to work together on the low-hanging fruit. It was a very productive, fast and action-orientated two hours.
“Yet far more is needed, and that must come from a functioning Government. This winter will be catastrophic, the hideous spikes in wholesale energy will translate by October into Ofgem setting a price cap for a typical bill of around £3,000 a year – close to four times what some paid just two years go. It will push millions into poverty."
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