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Citizens Advice Service - Response to CMA’S Provisional Decision on Remedies

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Citizens Advice Service - Response to CMA’S Provisional Decision on Remedies The Citizens Advice Service - Response to CMA’s provisional decision on remedies 1. Purpose of paper Citizens Advice and Citizens Advice Scotland (Citizens Advice Service) have statutory responsibilities to represent energy consumers in Great Britain in accordance with the 2007 Consumers, Estate Agents and Redress Act. This paper is their joint response to the provisional decision on remedies in the Competition and Market Authority (CMA)’s energy market investigation. 1 2. Executive summary The backdrop to the investigation The public has lost confidence in the energy market.1 Polling suggests consumer trust in the UK energy sector is lower than in most other UK sectors, and in the same sector overseas.2 Consumers overwhelmingly distrust energy suppliers to tell them the truth3 and don’t understand what goes in their bills.4 Too often basic customer service processes go wrong5 and, while complaint levels are starting to drop from their peak, they remain at unacceptable levels. Consumers in distress contact our local network in ever greater numbers.6 Energy bills have risen much faster than inflation7 and are the number one spending concern of consumers.8 But despite there never being a greater need for engagement, over half of consumers have never switched and more than two-thirds are on the expensive standard variable tariffs.9 The loss in competitive pressure is resulting in steadily expanding margins10, steadily decreasing efficiency, 11 and the ability for suppliers to pass through increases in costs more readily than they pass through decreases in costs.12 1 YouGov polling in September 2013 found that 56% of people agreed that “energy companies treat people with contempt” while only 7% disagreed. 83% felt energy suppliers maximise profits at the expense of customers http://tinyurl.com/qbjq3jg . Subsequent YouGov polling published in April 2014 suggested only 7% of consumers trust the ​ utilities industry to focus on the best interests of its customers and wider society http://tinyurl.com/ol9amsg . In ​ ​ November 2013 the Which? Consumer Insight Tracker suggested that only one-in-seven consumers’ trust energy companies to act in their best interests. http://tinyurl.com/nkh7dwk . In a February 2013 uswitch poll, 45% suggested their ​ ​ levels of trust in energy suppliers had decreased in the preceding two years, while just 10% suggested it had improved. http://tinyurl.com/op59g23 . The 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer found that only 36% of the UK public trusted energy ​ CEOs to do the right thing (vs a global average of 46%). http://tinyurl.com/zwsb8gc. ​ ​ 2 The 2016 Edelman Trust Barometer, conducted in 28 countries, suggested that the UK came fourth bottom in trust in the energy sector among the general population. The proportion trusting the sector lagged the global average by 14 percentage points (43% vs 57%). Slide 26, http://tinyurl.com/zwsb8gc. Within the UK, energy was the second least trusted ​ ​ sector after financial services. Slide 23, http://tinyurl.com/htpvkcn ​ 3 In December 2013 YouGov reported that only 3% of the public fully believed suppliers’ explanation for price rises, while 30% only partially believed it, and 57% did not believe their justification. http://tinyurl.com/nucmfom ​ 4 Polling conducted by MVA for Consumer Focus in 2012 suggested that 67% of the public were unaware that social and environmental obligations were paid for through their energy bills (sample size: 798). In separate deliberative workshops conducted as part of the same project, we found consumers had little awareness of the proportion of bills that was attributable to social and environmental policies. “Who Pays?”, Consumer Focus 2012. http://tinyurl.com/hwjue58 ​ 5 The Citizens Advice Service monitors and publishes complaint handling statistics for the 19 largest energy suppliers. The most recent league tables can be found on our website, here. http://tinyurl.com/gvc48mw ​ 6 In 2015 England & Wales Citizens Advice Bureaux advised clients on 69,678 issues in relation to fuel – a 27% increase on ​ the preceding year (54,743). There were increases in price and tariff issues (+19%), switching supplier and selling methods (+211%) and billing/meter issues (+2%). Citizens Advice Scotland has seen demand for energy advice provision grow by 130% since 2011, growing by roughly a third per year and totalling 21,793 issues in 2014/15. 7 According to DECC statistics (http://tinyurl.com/o8zybas), the average household electricity and gas bills in 2005 were ​ ​ ​ £365 and £317 respectively. By 2015 these had increased to £540 (up 48%) and £714 (up 125%). If these bills had simply tracked CPI inflation they would have been £491 and £427 in 2015. 8 See, for example, YouGov January 2015 http://tinyurl.com/gv5vadj. Energy prices consistently poll as either households ​ ​ first or second biggest worry in Which? Consumer Insights Tracker. http://tinyurl.com/jxakq4e ​ 9 The CMA’s customer survey found that 56% of consumers had never switched supplier, did not know if it was possible or did not know if they had done so. It is commonly agreed that around 70% of households are on standard variable tariffs. 10 The Consolidated Segmental Statements show domestic supply margins increasing from 0.9% in 2009 to 4.5% in 2014. http://tinyurl.com/zncrtzu 11 Your analysis (table 3.10) suggests a rapid escalation in the degree to which the Big 6 are pricing above an efficient level from 2012 to 2015 (2012: £544m, 2013: £1,683m, 2014: £2,184m, 2015: £2,452m). 12 In their tripartite March 2014, State of the Market Assessment, the OFT, Ofgem and CMA jointly found that ‘large ​ suppliers appear to raise prices more quickly and fully when costs increases than they reduce them when costs fall.’ http://tinyurl.com/gqld3b3 2 What would a successful investigation deliver? In calling for a market investigation referral, we set out four key issues that the inquiry would need to tackle in order to stand a chance of being successful.13 First, ensuring the market works for all consumers, both domestic and non ​ domestic. The CMA needed to drill down beyond the notional average consumer to ​ look at the circumstances affecting different types of consumer. This needed to include those who differ from the norm for reasons of payment method (such as prepayment meter users), type of metering, type of tenancy, and main fuel source for heating, as well as protected characteristics, vulnerability, region, and consumers in the devolved nations affected by devolved policy. Energy is an essential service, and the CMA needs to be confident that the market works for all consumers, not simply those in favoured segments. If some vulnerable groups are so disengaged that no competitive remedy is likely to ever reach them, we challenged the CMA to give consideration to whether ‘backstop tariffs’ or other mechanisms are needed for their protection. Second, providing assurance on the delivery of social and environmental ​ programmes. These account for an increasing fraction of consumer bills. The ​ costs of delivering these schemes have become a disputed matter, particularly around price rise announcements, where they are increasingly blamed by suppliers for price inflation. We were looking to the CMA to see if these schemes were delivered efficiently and bring transparency to their true costs. Thirdly, competitive intensity. Ofgem had identified evidence of asymmetric ​ ​ pass-through of changes to supplier costs – with hikes passed on more readily than drops. Its supply market indicators were suggesting a sustained medium term increase in the profitability of supply activities. Such evidence implied a market characterised by soft competition, with insufficient pressure on suppliers to compete margins away. The CMA needed to identify and tackle the causes of this. Finally, the CMA needed to improve trust and transparency in the sector. The ​ ​ public lacks confidence that the prices they pay are fair. A major contributory factor is the lack of transparency on the underlying cost drivers that move retail prices, which has resulted in frequent public disputes between industry, regulator and government. The inquiry needs to equip the public with the tools to break this cycle. The current lack of trust in the sector means fewer consumers willing to engage in the market, consumers accepting poor or inadequate service as standard and low satisfaction levels, all of which ultimately reduces the competitive intensity of the market. 13 They are presented in truncated fashion here for brevity, please see ‘A market investigation into the energy market,’ Citizens Advice, 23 May 2014 for more details. http://tinyurl.com/h2jm76k ​ 3 Do the provisional recommendations provide solutions to those problem areas? We broadly recognise the CMA’s diagnosis of problems in the market and can provide either qualified or unqualified support for the majority of the remedies it proposes - though we have concerns that a minority of proposals may require significant further work, or could have unintended consequences. Ensuring the market works for all consumers, both domestic and non domestic The CMA has effectively articulated many of the problems facing prepayment meter (‘PPM’) consumers and demonstrated the failure of competition to serve them. We welcome your willingness to consider introducing a backstop tariff as we had asked, and support your proposal to introduce a time-limited regulated safeguard tariff to reduce the detriment PPM customers experience. You estimate that this proposal could reduce the cost burden on PPM consumers by around £300m/year, felt through lower bills. This could make a material difference to the lives of many of the most vulnerable households. While the CMA’s proposals represent a substantial and meaningful improvement on existing arrangements, we think the benefit of the safeguard tariff could be enhanced still further if it were to be a targeted at an overlapping, but different, group. The CMA has identified particular structural barriers which mean that there is is both less competition and more difficulty associated with PPM consumers switching as opposed to their credit counterparts.
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