More Customers are Choosing the Smaller Suppliers

In April 2014 289,000 consumers' switched energy suppliers, with almost half choosing smaller suppliers over the 'Big Six'. Despite this, the large suppliers still dominant the market with a 94.6% share - however this has fallen from 99.4% in January 2011.

The report comes amid mounting pressure on the industry to prove that there is a healthy level of competition within the retail and wholesale energy markets, following calls from the regulator for a full investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority.

"Once again, the monthly electricity switching report has shown that switching is on the up," said Energy UK in a statement.

"This is the sixth month in a row that the percentage of all switching being a move to small supplier has increased. This shows that there is plenty of choice out there and the public are making the most of it," the group added.

The number of energy customers moving to small suppliers in April was 135,000, or 46.88% of all those who opted to change providers. But it is hoped that the CMA probe will result in even stronger growth for independent suppliers.

The small suppliers OVO Energy and First Utility are frequently top of the best deal lists for the cheapest home energy deals. - check them out at GET ME CHEAP BILLS.COM

Citizens Advice Proposal

In light of the increase of transfers to the smaller suppliers, Citizen's Advice have proposed that energywatch, Consumer Focus and Consumer Futures publish rankings of ALL energy suppliers to give consumers access to accurate and impartial information. Giving consumer's access to this information empowers them to make informed decisions about their energy supplier, and gives the companies incentive to continually improve their performance as they are ranked on their performance. Up until now this has only been limited to the 'Big Six' but Citizen Advice want to include the smaller suppliers in order to give the consumer a through and whole choice before switching.

Citizen's Advice are welcoming opinions and views on their proposals. Response should be emailed to Graeme.maclachlan@citzensdvice.org.uk.This should be provided before July 9th as they wish to start publishing data towards the end of 2014.

Anyone wanting a free quotation from an independent and impartial price comparison site should visit GET ME CHEAP BILLS.COM to see how the smaller suppliers compare.