Are energy firms profiteering?

The ‘big six’ energy firms faced a summit with the government this week to account for their high prices. Are they justified? Simon Wilson reports.

Are the energy firms ripping us off?

The energy regulator certainly thinks so. Last week, Ofgem in effect accused the big six' energy suppliers (EDF, E.ON, Scottish and Southern Energy, RWE npower, Scottish Power and British Gas) of rampant profiteering and collusion. It published figures showing that the profit per dual-fuel customer has leapt more than eightfold from £15 to £125 a year within just a few months. "When consumers face energy bills at around £1,345 [a year], they must have complete confidence that this price is set by companies operating in a fully competitive market," said Ofgem chief executive Alistair Buchanan. "At the moment this is not the case."

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Simon Wilson’s first career was in book publishing, as an economics editor at Routledge, and as a publisher of non-fiction at Random House, specialising in popular business and management books. While there, he published Customers.com, a bestselling classic of the early days of e-commerce, and The Money or Your Life: Reuniting Work and Joy, an inspirational book that helped inspire its publisher towards a post-corporate, portfolio life.   

Since 2001, he has been a writer for MoneyWeek, a financial copywriter, and a long-time contributing editor at The Week. Simon also works as an actor and corporate trainer; current and past clients include investment banks, the Bank of England, the UK government, several Magic Circle law firms and all of the Big Four accountancy firms. He has a degree in languages (German and Spanish) and social and political sciences from the University of Cambridge.