2 February 2007
British Gas has responded to Scottish and Southern Energy's pledge to lower its tariffs "in the next few months" by stating that it too will soon charge its customers less, but commentators are less than impressed by the claims.
So far, only npower has actually cut its prices, but with wholesale prices falling by more than 40%, experts suggest that electricity and gas costs should fall by 16% and 24% respectively for suppliers to truly be offering their consumers a good deal.
Geoff Slaughter, Product Manager at the price comparison and switching website uSwitch.com, commented: "Now both British Gas and SSE have announced that they will finally be passing on wholesale price reductions to consumers.
"However, with no firm rates or dates on the table it's difficult not to see this as an attempt to polish a tarnished reputation."
Consumer watchdog energywatch is also cynical about the possibility of a genuine price war from the energy suppliers, with energywatch's Karl Brookes telling the Mirror: "We want real price competition rather than a phoney war."
One of Mr Brooke's colleagues, Graham Kerr, from energywatch Scotland, told the Scotsman: "Suppliers have been talking about price cuts for months and so far it feels like a phoney war.
"What energywatch and consumers want is a real price competition so we can switch suppliers to get a real deal rather than make a move in a desperate attempt to mitigate the swingeing price increases of the past three years.
"We will judge price reductions against the 94 per cent that has gone on an average gas bill and 66 per cent on electricity bills over recent years."
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