SSE price freeze comes at a cost

THE PRESSURE on the Big Six energy companies to slash their prices has been growing exponentially in recent months.

The squeeze on household finances has been vice-like in households across the country and rising gas and electricity prices have been a major contributory factor.

The debate has gone in circles for years — the companies announce large profits, consumers cry foul over high domestic prices, the companies blame external factors, consumers have no choice but to pay or the lights go out.

Harsh though it seems, multi-billion-pound firms can afford to ignore their customers for a time, especially when the disaffected can only turn to other companies acting in exactly the same way.

But when the issue reaches the political arena, it is almost inevitable that change will eventually happen. Parties of all hues have rattled their sabres and suggested the Government could step in.

Yesterday, Perth-based SSE proved it had taken the political temperature and announced a price hike freeze lasting until 2016. Where one of the Big Six leads, the others tend to follow and there could now be a series of similar pledges by their competitors in a bid to keep their customers from drifting away. Good news indeed for hard-pressed bill-payers. Less welcome, however, was the simultaneous announcement by SSE that it is shedding 500 jobs.

There is no point in being apparently benevolent by pressing down prices on the one hand while taking away the livelihood of their staff on the other.

The people of Perth, where the firm has a massive presence, will be watching carefully — many customers have stayed loyal to their “local” supplier but goodwill can quickly drain away.