SSE to offer annual reviews for customers

Following Nick Clegg's push for UK energy companies to offer the British public the best tariffs, utilities giant SSE has announced that it is to offer all its customers an 'Annual Energy Review' (AER), the company revealed today.

SSE said this afternoon that, after a successful pilot programme involving over 1,000 customers, it will now offer an AER to "make sure that customers are on the best product for their needs, paying for their energy in the most effective way, using their energy efficiently and accessing any benefits or support they might be entitled to."

Earlier this month, the Deputy Prime Minister claimed that families were paying too much for their bills as they are on the wrong tariff.

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SSE said it will start off by prioritising AERs for "vulnerable" customers before rolling-out the scheme nationwide throughout the year. SSE has reassured that it will freeze prices until at least October 2012, in spite of wholesale price pressures.

Some 200 new jobs are expected to be created to deliver this programme.

SSE Chief Executive Ian Marchant said: "SSE takes its responsibilities toward its customers very seriously and believes that actions speak louder than words. That is why over the last six months we have been working hard to implement the ten commitments we announced in October 2011, which were designed to begin the process of regaining our customers' trust. I'm pleased to report that we have delivered against all of them."

"As the ten steps we are setting out today show, we have no intention of stopping here either. We want to work in collaboration with customers and other interested parties to further improve our performance and that of the industry as a whole," he said.

BC