Bye bye to ban on business energy rollovers

Posted on 14 February 2014 by Vicky Ellis

Ofgem has shied away from banning auto-rollovers, the controversial practice of automatically putting businesses onto the same energy tariff or higher when their contract ends, according to new plans announced today.

Debate over auto-rollovers has raged amongst suppliers with some backing a ban while others were less convinced.

In the end many suppliers such as ScottishPower plumped for scrapping auto-rollovers – or near enough – before Ofgem forced them to.

Instead Ofgem said today it is changing the number of days’ notice a business can give to switch supplier. The notice period will be dropped to 30 days rather than around the 30-90 days they are currently.

The regulator said “streamlining” this across suppliers will “end confusion” for businesses on when they have tell their supplier if they want to switch.

At the end of the contract, suppliers will also have to provide businesses with information on how much energy they have used in the last year.

In the renewal price they will have to put a comparison between their current rate and new rates they are offering.

Ofgem said in a statement: “This will make it easier for businesses to compare other offers.”

Suppliers will also have to acknowledge in writing any requests from a business to switch.

Ofgem said all changes linked to rollover contracts should be in place by the end of this year.

This is the second half of Ofgem’s announcement today to improve energy contracts for businesses, the other half is a code of practice for brokers.

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Article source: http://www.energylivenews.com/2014/02/14/bye-bye-to-ban-on-business-energy-rollovers/