Chris Huhne Wants Energy Suppliers to Make Tariffs Easier to Understand

It seems that the Energy Secretary Chris Huhne is doing all he can to protect energy consumers. In fact, he has just recently pledged to stop the ‘Big Six’ energy suppliers from charging millions of consumers expensive rates while offering the cheapest online tariffs. Apparently, Chris believes that this is inhibiting smaller suppliers from gaining any kind of ground.

During a Lib Dem conference this week, Chris vowed to grant the energy regulator Ofgem additional powers. By doing this, Ofgem can make suppliers repay consumers for unnecessarily high rates. Mr. Huhne promised to make the energy companies tell their consumers whether they would save money buy moving to a different deal or not.

This is all very welcome news for consumers. After all, consumer groups have been calling on suppliers to simplify tariffs for months. These tariffs tend to be a little confusing for people to understand. Ofgem has promised to combat this problem, but has yet to make any kind of progress doing so.

Right now, a consumer’s best weapon is comparison sites. These sites help consumers get a great deal, and thus save them the most money. The problem is millions of homes fail to use these comparison sites and are overpaying for energy.

A member of Energyhelpline, which is a comparison site, said that if suppliers are told no longer to give special offers to get new consumers, then people would see poorer specials. The net result could be consumers getting smaller savings in the long run. Consumers really do not need Chris Huhne to come to their rescue. Consumers can help themselves by using comparison sites. What people do not know, is that switching takes just a few minutes, and is pretty simple to do.

This spokesman went on to say that Chris Hunhe sounds like he means business, but people have heard these kinds of words from politicians before. Very often, nothing gets done. Only time will tell whether he really makes a difference or not. If he does what he says he will, then he could help a lot of people.

All in all, consumers have to step up and save themselves. The tools that people need to get the best prices are out there. They just have to use them. Instead of waiting for the government to come to aid them, people have to take matters into their own hands. They have to show these energy companies that they cannot simply push people around.