Ofgem’s decision to investigate the Big Six energy companies for not being competitive enough is hardly a great surprise but more surprising would be the idea that anyone outside government, Ofgem and the energy industry itself thinks more competition would be good for consumers. All the energy companies do is buy energy from the same global market and sell it on to us. Their only real scope for competition is in how many staff they lay off, how many short-term loss leader deals they’re prepared to offer, and how efficiently they provide how much profit to their shareholders. All the grey political parties see this as a good thing, when the main benefit is just to the companies making money. The Greens would like to renationalise much of our energy infrastructure, combined with more community-managed local energy generation, so that the energy industry’s first priority is its customers. What we don’t need is a load more players in a more complex and more competitive energy market.
