Energy tariffs - Age Cymru comment
Published on 11 April 2012 12:00 PM
Age Cymru has given a mixed welcome to a UK Government announcement that energy companies will have to tell their customers about the best deals they can provide for them.
Commenting on the news our Director of Influencing and Programme Development Victoria Lloyd says:
"The thought of potentially cheaper energy deals will put a smile on the faces of many of us - particularly those on low incomes who struggle to heat their homes during the cold winter months.
"Fuel poverty - where a household has to spend 10 per or more of its income on heating, is a miserable fact of life for an estimated 320,000 homes in Wales, and a contributory factor in the 1,500 cold-related deaths in Wales each winter.
"While efforts to make energy more affordable by ensuring customers are receiving the most suitable deal for them from their current supplier are to be welcomed, this won't necessarily mean that consumers will get the best deal they could from among all the other tariffs that are being offered by different suppliers in the marketplace.
"This may be part of the solution but only as part of a wider strategy to tackle fuel poverty and better manage the various factors which are pushing energy prices upwards."