24th Mar 2015 12:25
LONDON (Alliance News) - The UK Department for Energy and Climate Change Tuesday said its Power To Switch campaign saved 130,000 households a combined GBP38 million as it continues to try to encourage people to switch energy suppliers.
The four-week campaign was launched on February 16 and included national, regional and online advertising to try to encourage people to switch and save, including a new government website.
The Department said in the month since its launch, over 350,000 people visited the government website which resulted in 130,000 households switching energy supplier, representing an 80% rise from the same period a year earlier. The combined GBP38 million saving has almost tripled and the average saving per household for dual-fuel switches rose by 60% to GBP312.
"A huge increase in switching in a four week period shows that people want better deals from energy providers ? and our reforms to the market have driven competition and made that possible," said Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey.
The government department said the increase in households switching was a result of its media campaign and the government's programme of energy market reforms which includes halving switching times to 17 days from five weeks, encouraging new suppliers to the market and legislating for Ofgem, the market regulator, to force energy companies to make energy bills clearer.
February was also the first month that energy companies, including the Big Six, introduced cheaper tariffs to customers. Of the Big Six, EDF Energy, E.On, Scottish Power Ltd, part of the Iberdola Group, and British Gas, part of Centrica PLC, all introduced price cuts in February.
SSE PLC will not be introducing tariff cuts until the end of April, whilst nPower only reduced bills for customers who experienced an increase in December 2014.
Energy UK, the trade organisation that represents 80 members made up of generators and gas and electricity suppliers said at the beginning of March that the number of UK households that had switched energy provider during February increased by 50% month-on-month, or by an extra 100,000 households because of the government's media campaign and the introduction of price cuts.
The Department of Energy and Climate Change said the government website remains active and said customers can still save money by switching their energy supplier.
Centrica shares were down 1.6% to 254.60 pence per share on Tuesday morning, whilst SSE shares were down 0.5% to 1,560.12 pence per share.
By Joshua Warner; [email protected]; @JoshAlliance
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