Speeches by Billington.

“Katie, do you believe the remedial actions and financial awards available to the Energy Ombudsman are enough to drive up standards and give consumers the compensation they deserve?”

“Exit fees are about £2,000, which is quite a lot of money, particularly if you want to do this at scale. Otherwise you are leaving it for the people who will do it because it makes them feel good about themselves.”

“Do you think there is any merit in scaling network and policy costs in people’s bills based on their income levels?”

“Citizens Advice has warned that your proposal for a mandatory zero or low standing charge option—as you would have heard earlier—would have only small benefits for consumers while risking unfair outcomes. How do you respond to this assessment and how will you ensure that consumers can understand whether new tariffs wil…”

“This is on network and policy costs. We have heard that consumers who switch to electrified heating are required to keep their gas meter and continue paying the gas standing charge until they clear their energy debt. Do you agree that this presents a barrier to decarbonising homes and do you plan to change this?”

“I will follow up on that, therefore, and ask where your current thinking is—we have asked you this before, but it is important to regularly check in—and where your conversations with Government are on an energy social tariff.”

“You won’t be surprised by me asking you this. Do you agree that allowing more consumers in energy debt to switch to a cheaper tariff would help them better manage their finances while supporting the adoption of lower carbon heating options—combining those two things together?”

“Following up on dealing with the debt-related costs, you have been considering redistributing those costs between consumers—standard credit and direct debit—and your analysis suggests that that would mean a £200 million benefit for low-income consumers. Why was that work paused and are you considering resuming it?”

“Why is Ofgem proposing a one-off rather than a permanent energy debt relief scheme? Will support be made automatically or will it rely on consumers applying?”

“Is Ofgem planning to level out costs across all payment methods?”

“Given that standard credit customers are considered more likely to go into debt and struggle to afford their energy bills, why are they made to pay more under the energy price cap compared with people on other payment methods?”

“They do get triaged by bots though, don’t they?”

“How many of the complaints or concerns are managed by chatbots versus human beings?”

“To follow up on that, do you still have human beings in your call centres or is this all being done by chatbots?”

“Thank you. Is it cheaper for energy suppliers to pay the compensation required by the Energy Ombudsman than to invest in proper customer service?”

“I am suggesting that it is not actually that difficult.”

“Sorry, Dr Roy, but I have worked in call centres and followed scripts, and like most consumers, I have also been at the other end of those phone calls when you come to impasse. It seems to me that, at that point, it should be quite easy to say in the script, “Thank you very much, Ms Billington. I’m sorry we can’t resol…”

“It is quite a lot of error though, isn’t it?”

“You will be collecting data, won’t you? It will be interesting to see what Citizens Advice data starts to show. Dr Roy, in the last quarter of 2024 just over a quarter of the cases that Centrica was unable to resolve were correctly signposted to the Energy Ombudsman. Why do you think this is and what challenges do supp…”

“I take your point. Alex, thank you also for what Citizens Advice do. I need to declare an interest in that I worked for Citizens Advice for some time and know the value of what you do as well as valuing the bureau in my constituency. You have the statutory advocacy role for microbusinesses, which is particularly import…”