This morning, members of our executive board visited the Fuel Bank Foundation at Queensborough Community Centre on the Scovell Estate in Southeast London. Fuel Bank Foundation is the only UK charity to focus on the challenges of people living in fuel crisis. Given Ofgem’s emphasis on supporting vulnerable consumers and the issue of forced prepayment meter installation in recent years, this visit offered a valuable chance for Ofgem decision makers to explore the support that is available to energy consumers, gain insight into the consumers ‘lived experience’ and directly understand FBF’s efforts to address the issue of fuel crisis. We would like to thank those who took time out of their days to host us and explain the issues that they are facing and look forward to working with them in the future to better support energy consumers.
How fantastic! Well done Ofgem and Fuel Bank Foundation. Nothing is more powerful for driving action than listening to those who have experienced vulnerability first-hand. I have no doubt you they heard the full realities of life Matthew? "Every repeated disclosure steals a week of my life" - Dan Holloway. Sometimes it's useful to have it in writing too so I am attaching this image which IE Hub took while Chris Fitch, PhD, FRSPH presented at the Collaboration Network's Vulnerability Summit last week. I hope we can use this and others from today to deliver an effective Share Once Support Register to enable firms to properly meet their needs.
So… Ofgem are visiting the good people of Queensborough so that they can see at first hand what their market madness and tinkering has caused over the years. The true success story would be that @Ofgem would have no vulnerable customers to visit because the market that they designed was progressive but no… a regressive set of policies has generated a swathe of people that cannot afford energy to heat homes and cook food. Good job as ever Ofgem 👏
MITSKILLS ITP
2wCongratulation well done Dealing with fuel poverty should be a priority- Fuel poverty in Scotland and London is a market failure. Greg Jackson, Chief Executive Officer of Octopus Energy, stated that Scotland could experience periods of free electricity if Ofgem modified its regulations. Greg Jackson said: “At the moment, in the UK, we have got a complete lack of price signals. So in the UK, every half hour, the electricity price across the UK is the same. “It’s the same whether you’re in Scotland, and all the wind farms are turning. Or you’re in Slough and we’ve got so little electricity, you can’t build data centres. “This is crazy. What we need is a real reform of markets so that, for example, when it’s windy in Scotland, we don’t pay the wind farms to turn off. “We give Scottish people cheap or free electricity at those times. And we can see that the shortage of electricity in other regions means, you know, we’ll build batteries in the southeast. “It will give us the investment signals. And I think it is outrageous that one-third of the time, the interconnectors between the UK and other countries are flowing the wrong way. Finland renewables make it cheapest. Market change is needed.