Market reforms needed to boost market confidence: FSB

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and consumer advocate Which? have teamed up to highlight trust failures in the non-domestic energy market and to call for radical reforms to business energy tariffs.

The organisations said that the reforms were needed to ensure fairness and transparency for businesses, enabling them to easily identify and switch to the best possible deals in the market. Achieving these objectives would, they argued, involve publishing businesses tariffs – something that 81% of businesses surveyed said would help boost confidence in the market – and an end to auto-rollover contracts.

The call for change came after an FSB survey published on 12 September, showed that distrust of energy suppliers had continued to rise. It found that over 80% of small businesses felt that their energy supplier did not care about them. Around two thirds (65%) also said it was difficult to switch energy supplier, with the biggest problems cited being unclear notice periods, complicated contract terms and the speed of the switching process.