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File on 4: Energy Prices

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Energy Prices

04/10/2011

BBC Radio 4 - File on 4, Energy Prices

Are households and businesses being overcharged for gas and electricity?

Are the Big Six gas and electricity companies turning into the 'new banks' - becoming too big to fail and hindering economic recovery? Gerry Northam investigates.

Household gas and electricity bills are set to soar, leaving millions at risk of 'fuel poverty' and vulnerable to cold as winter approaches.
The government's hopes for recovery in UK manufacturing industry are also threatened in key sectors by rocketing energy prices. Some small and medium-sized businesses have already been pushed into liquidation and there are fears that others will follow.
Politically, attention is now focusing on the behaviour of the so-called Big Six energy companies which supply 99% of the gas and electricity used in British homes.
The regulator OFGEM accuses them of 'complex and unfair pricing policies'. It wants to increase competition by making it simpler for customers to decide to switch suppliers. It finds that prices go up like a rocket but fall like a feather. And it wants greater disclosure of corporate accounting systems, to check for excessive profits. 
Gerry Northam examines claims from some industry insiders that the Big Six are behaving as the banks did before the credit crunch - threatening economic recovery while believing they are too big to fail.
Producer: Samantha Fenwick.

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