11th Apr 2008 07:00
Scottish & Southern Energy PLC11 April 2008 SCOTTISH AND SOUTHERN ENERGY PLC SUPPORT FOR FUEL POOR CUSTOMERS Scottish and Southern Energy plc ("SSE") has agreed with the Department forBusiness, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform to provide additional support forvulnerable electricity and gas customers in the period to March 2011. The UKgovernment has stated that given the substantial commitment that an agreement ofthis kind represents, it will not expect companies to do more over the period2008-11 on social assistance. Under the agreement, SSE will operate existing and new schemes with a totalvalue of around £16m in the first phase, up to 31 March 2009. These schemes willbe designed to assist the fuel poor and those vulnerable to fuel poverty. Theywill feature a variety of approaches such as 'social' tariffs, charitabledonations, bespoke services for vulnerable customers, work with advocateorganisations and community-based programmes. In support of this agreement, SSE has today published a Code of Practice forFuel Poor Customers, following consultation with consumer and voluntaryorganisations. It contains two key principles: •Energy suppliers should ensure that any 'social' tariff which they offer to fuel poor customers is the lowest-cost tariff made available by them to any type of customer, via any type of payment plan or sign-up method; and, as an additional safeguard, •Energy suppliers should ensure that their 'social' tariff for customers is lower than average direct debit tariffs in the UK. SSE's 'social' tariff, 'energyplus care', conforms to these principles. Itoffers householders a discount of 20% on their energy bills and a variety ofother services to help them better manage their energy consumption. In order toprovide additional support for vulnerable electricity and gas customers, SSE hastoday committed to quadrupling the number of customers who benefit from'energyplus care', to 100,000 customer accounts, over the next year. Ian Marchant, Chief Executive of SSE, said: 'The single biggest contribution which energy suppliers can make to preventingfuel poverty is to keep prices as low as possible for as long as possible. Forthis reason, SSE will maintain its long-established responsible pricing policy:we will seek to be the last, or one of the last, of the major suppliers toincrease prices if we have to and the first, or one of the first, to cut pricesif we can. 'The next biggest contribution which suppliers can make is to ensure socialtariffs are genuine. Vulnerable customers need the lowest prices available, notsimply a tariff labelled 'social', and that principle is at the heart of our newCode of Practice. Many previous claims about spending on 'social' tariffs do notconform to this principle. Our social tariff does, and we are going to quadruplethe number of customers who benefit from it. 'Determining how best to deliver this extra support for vulnerable customerswill present a number of challenges. The issues are not straightforward.Nevertheless, we are committed to the effective and transparent delivery of this£16m programme, in accordance with the Code of Practice we have now adopted.' -ends- Note: SSE's Code of Practice for Fuel Poor Customers can be viewed on SSE's corporatewebsite www.scottish-southern.co.uk This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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