Jayne Dowle: Regulator lacks power to tackle energy firms

Oh yes, when all that comes to pass, I’ll believe that MPs also have the power to call the energy companies to account and make them pay back all the money they have conned – sorry, there’s no other word for it – out of blameless customers.

I am pleased that Conservative MP Tim Yeo, the chairman of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee, has told these companies to drop their “Del Boy” sales tactics and stop hassling customers who have been mis-sold gas and electricity contracts on the doorstep.

I am also pleased that British Gas has been fined £2.5m for failing to deal with complaints correctly. Better late than never, I suppose.

But I can’t see the likes of npower and company listening, not in the way that you or I might listen if a committee of MPs told us we were doing something seriously wrong. Like bankers. Like senior policemen. And yes, like some public servants, the energy companies seem to believe that they are above the law. They are not.

In the days ahead, they will, inevitably, make some well-publicised efforts to do the right thing and put a temporary stop to sharkish selling practices. But the Select Committee can’t do much more than tell them off.

Can you imagine every single person who has been persuaded to switch suppliers sitting down and totting up exactly how much money they have lost? And getting it back?

No, me neither. I will be equally amazed if the energy companies ever volunteer refunds on their customers’ behalf, especially as it is reported that more than 40 per cent of customers who have been persuaded to switch did not actually get a better deal. That’s a lot of money lost along the way.

So no, it is only going to be those with the time and patience and ability to pursue any claim of mis-selling who will get anything. The committee found, unsurprisingly, that it is “vulnerable” customers, especially those too poor to afford anything but pre-payment deals, who are the most likely to have fallen prey to the hard-sell on the doorstep. So draw your own conclusions.

Meanwhile, where are the teeth of Ofgem?

Only four months ago, the industry regulator promised to drag the “Big Six” energy providers, which obviously include some of the companies castigated by the Select Committee, into line.

And what has Ofgem done in response to this latest report? Admitted that the Select Committee had erm, got a point, and issued such a feeble response that it is worth repeating in full so you know just how hard the industry regulator is fighting on your paying-customer behalf: “Ofgem’s recent review of the retail market signalled that there may be a case for additional powers for the regulator to better protect and put right problems for consumers.”

If I was running an energy company, I’d be cancelling my two-week holiday to Marbella forthwith, and staying behind to make sure I didn’t upset Ofgem any further. As if.

Come on Ofgem. MPs can only say and do so much. It is up to you to get a grip on the sharp practices which infect your industry and sort it out. And really, if you can’t crack down on a bunch of dodgy doorstep salesmen in cheap suits, what hope have we of expecting you to take on some of the really terrifying things that are happening within the energy industry? Like the price rises of 18 per cent already announced for the autumn by some of the biggest providers, including British Gas.

It is not just the “vulnerable” customers who are facing the very threat of fuel poverty this winter. It is families who never, ever imagined that they would have to make a choice between fuel and food.

I know we are all having to accept austerity, but that includes big business too. I am sick of the excuses. Global fuel prices are not the only things on the rise. Take a look at energy company share prices. We consumers are literally, powerless, to do anything about this. And when these price rises kick in, some of us will end up power-less altogether.

Perhaps it is not the energy companies that MPs should be worrying themselves about, but the industry regulator itself. The British Gas fine is a start, but no more. Is it a token gesture or the start of a wider crackdown on poor customer service?

It must be the latter or there will be no hope for those consumers whose interests are supposed to be protected by organisations like Ofgem.