Suppliers slammed over tariff reshuffle
BRITISH Gas have been accused of replacing one rip-off tariff with another after a shake-up.
The country’s biggest suppliers yesterday pledged to scrap their costly standard variable tariffs (SVT) for new customers.
They will only be offered fixed-term deals instead.
British Gas were unable to say if this new tariff would be any cheaper than their SVT.
But Iain Conn, boss of British Gas owners Centrica, admitted they would probably be “one of the higher tariffs in the market”.
Meanwhile, 4.6million customers will remain on British Gas’s standard variable tariffs. The firm hiked their electricity prices by 12.5 per cent in August.
British Gas claim they will encourage them to switch, despite accounting for 70 per cent of profits in their residential arm.
Yesterday’s announcement comes ahead of Government plans to cap SVT prices. Centrica are also calling for “green” levies, currently added to energy bills, to be collected through general taxes instead, and for other costs to be borne by all suppliers, including new entrants.
MoneySavingExpert. com founder Martin Lewis had misgivings about yesterday’s move.
He said: “British Gas are promoting this as a radical pro-consumer move.
“Yet, in truth, this could just be smoke and mirrors.
“Instead of a default standard variable tariff people move to when the deal they chose ends, it will now have a default standard fixed-term tariff.”
Greg Jackson, boss of British Gas rival suppliers Octopus, called the shake-up a “ruse”.
He added: “If they wanted to bring lower bills to customers, they could cut their prices.” up 8.8 at 7389.5 GKN GlaxoSmithKline Halfords Hays HSBC Imperial Brands International Airlines Grp ITV Kingfisher Land Securities Legal & General Lloyds Marks & Spencer Morrison National Grid Next Old Mutual Pearson Prudential Reckitt Benckiser RELX 302.2 1313.5 333.9 186.1 728.7 3036.1 603.3 148.4 304.4 928.5 267.0 66.1 301.0 210.1 880.0 4371.0 190.7 694.5 1882.0 6380.0 1759.6 Oil -0.3 +5.5 +0.4 +1.5 -2.9 -12.9 +5.3 -2.1 -2.9 -4.0 -1.9 +0.1 -0.4 +0.7 -2.8 +67.0 -0.0 -3.0 -7.5 -13.0 +14.6 = $62.03 Rentokil Initial 325.1 Rio Tinto 3547.5 Rolls-Royce 897.0 Royal Mail 400.0 RSA 607.4 RBS 273.6 J Sainsbury 224.8 SSE 1331.0 Severn Trent 2087.8 Serco.......................................... 97.5 Sports Direct 391.0 Shell 2377.5 Sky 949.7 Smith & Nephew 1324.0 Smiths WH 2039.0 Stagecoach 159.5 Standard Chartered 724.2 Standard Life Aberdeen TalkTalk Taylor Wimpey Tesco 422.6 161.8 197.3 186.3 +2.3 +1.5 +8.0 +5.0 -1.6 -0.8 -2.8 -15.0 -4.2 -0.9 +6.5 +4.5 +9.7 -3.0 +17.0 +2.4 -1.9 +0.1 -6.7 +0.7 +1.6 Thomas Cook Unilever United Utilities Vodafone Trinity Mirror 117.0 4199.5 788.5 229.6 76.5 +5.7 +49.5 -9.5 +0.9 -1.3