Ofgem has told energy suppliers to publish clear details of all their tariffs to make it easier for households to understand if it is worth switching to a fixed deal.
The regulator's signal to firms that it expects them to act on clarity voluntarily follows MoneySavingExpert.com (MSE) founder Martin Lewis writing to Ofgem boss Jonathan Brearley urging him to ensure suppliers openly publish fixes even when they are available only to existing customers. Unlike open-market tariffs, there is no incentive for firms to publish deals open only to existing customers, or make them available on comparison websites.
This is making it difficult for consumers to compare deals and for sites such as MSE to advice people on the best decisions around switching. Ofgem has told suppliers that it will monitor them as usual and is open to taking further steps if it does not see them taking the requested action.
Some providers have tentatively begun to offer fixed deals again in a sign that competition is slowly returning to the market, but those that are available are typically only for the supplier's existing customers. They have followed average household energy bills falling by £426 a year from July 1 after Ofgem dropped its price cap in response to tumbling wholesale prices.
An Ofgem spokeswoman said: "As switching slowly returns to the energy market, we have existing rules in place to protect customers, but we are always interested in stakeholders' views on how these can be improved so that customers have access to the full data they need to draw meaningful comparisons."
Mr Lewis said: "I am grateful to Ofgem for listening to our call to try to make the energy fixing market more transparent. As I said in my letter, I understand the difficulties in bringing in new regulation. But at least this request means it is on the radar and firms know it will be frowned upon if they don't publish the tariff info.
"We have already started to receive some commitments from the big firms they will do this. We will, of course, continue to monitor if this ask from Ofgem is working. If not, we will push for this to be moved from guidance into regulation to ensure all firms fulfil their obligation."
