4 October 2006
Despite a fall in wholesale gas prices, customers are unlikely to see their domestic gas bills fall, according to one industry figure.
A spokesman from Optima Energy Management told BBC Two's Working Lunch that although the wholesale price of gas has fallen to minus four pence, there was no guarantee that the savings made by wholesale companies would be passed on.
Richard Murphy argued it was only the big market players who can benefit from these wholesale price decreases.
He said: "It is their choice whether they pass on those reductions to industrial and commercial users who are on contracts; or ultimately domestic users.
"Domestic suppliers will say that domestic users have lagged behind the industrial and commercial markets and haven't seen the real impact of rapidly rising gas prices over the last couple of years, so they are now taking some of the pain that industrial and commercial users have taken for some time.
"Domestics will catch up but it will take 18 months to two years."
uSwitch.com's free and impartial comparison & switching service can find the cheapest gas & electricity supplier for you.
© 2008 Adfero Ltd
Content for the uSwitch.com market news service is provided by a third party, Adfero Ltd. Whilst uSwitch.com makes reasonable efforts to check the reliability of this content, uSwitch.com does not guarantee the accuracy thereof or endorse the views or opinions given by Adfero Ltd, unless expressly stated otherwise.