Scottish and Southern urged to lead the way with drop in energy prices

Scottish and Southern Energy is the latest UK gas and electricity supplier to announce interim results. It has announced a 35% increase in profits to £455 million, but has demonstrated that profits do not need to be made at the customer’s expense.

Geoff Slaughter, Product Manager at uSwitch.com, comments: “Scottish and Southern Energy has been more conscientious than most when it comes its customers. Not only has it been top of the table for customer services in uSwitch.com’s own customer surveys, but it falls at the bottom of the league for price increases out of the six major providers.

“Despite this, the reality is that Scottish & Southern Energy’s seven million customers will see their gas bills increase by 12.2% or £65 from January 1st 2007, whilst electricity bills will rise by 9.4% or £32, bringing the average Scottish and Southern Energy bill to £962 per year, according to the independent switching service uSwitch.com.”

Slaughter continues: “The last two years have certainly been difficult, most notably on the consumer, as increased prices have taken their toll. However, following the drop in wholesale energy prices last month, we are confident SSE will lead the way when it comes to reducing energy prices.

“We are encouraged by SSE’s promises that if the falls in wholesale prices are sustained it will move quickly to reverse the price rises of recent years. Today’s news from SSE is evidence that good customer service need not be at the expense of company profitability.

“SSE’s profit margins have been helped by its swelling customer base which has increased by 1 million in the past twelve months, indicating some consumers are beginning to vote with their feet. We urge other suppliers to rebalance their pricing strategies to reflect the stabilisation of wholesale prices and to actively reward customer loyalty by injecting some of these profits to the benefit of consumers.”