A year is a long time in energy. In the last 12 months energy, and specifically energy prices, have dominated public debate and become a central battleground in the build-up to the general election. And the reason energy has become such a political issue is that it matters to voters; prices have gone up at a time when a lot of people are struggling financially.
Although we too had to increase our prices last year, I’m very proud of the action we’ve taken since then to help our customers.
In October, we asked the government to remove social and environmental levies from bills to protect customers from rising costs. I’m delighted that they listened and the government is now in the process of significantly simplifying its energy efficiency scheme, the Energy Company Obligation.
Because of these changes, the typical household bill will be £50 lower this year than it would otherwise have been.
But we didn’t stop there. At SSE we listen to our customers and, when we can, we take action. Customers across Britain told us very clearly that they were worried about the prospect of further price rises in the next couple of years and what this would mean for their finances.
So we announced that we would work hard to drive down costs and make less profit in supplying energy in the coming years in order to deliver the longest ever unconditional price freeze on standard energy prices.
No ifs, no buts: no increases to SSE’s household energy prices until at least 2016. It remains the only such promise in the market and one I am extremely proud of.
But while price is very important, it’s not the only thing customers care about. Customers don’t just want a good deal; they rightly want excellent service, too. And yet again SSE has been voted the best in the business for customer service in the uSwitch customer satisfaction rankings. It’s something our people, who help look after customers every day, work very hard to achieve.
Excellent customer service is about continuous improvement and that means taking action to make a difference. In 2013/14, we became the first supplier to put an end to cold calling, recognising that customers didn’t like it and it’s not how customers want to interact with us.
We also announced we would be ending automatic contract rollovers for small business customers, because small business owners have enough to worry about without us giving them another deadline to meet if they want to switch supplier.
We want to make sure we remain the best in the business. So today, even as we look back on a year in which we’ve made a lot of progress, I’m promising that we stick to our price freeze and will keep making further improvements in 2014/15.