Energy plans fail hosts

Only 30% of licensees would get protection

Fewer than one in three licensees would qualify for energy protection under current plans for a new scheme to begin in October.

A survey of 158 hosts found just 30% would qualify for the redress scheme under current proposals to limit it to firms that use less than £5,000-worth of gas or electricity per year.

But 79% would qualify under alternative plans to offer it to businesses with annual turnover under E2m or employing the equivalent of 10 or fewer full-time staff.

The results, from a survey on www.morningadvertiser.co.uk, will be sent to the

Government as it considers the final threshold for the energy redress scheme.

The scheme will offer access to an independent ombudsman to resolve complaints about energy suppliers and agents.

Suppliers will be legally bound to take part.

In addition, the survey shows the level of unhappiness with energy suppliers.

Three quarters had lodged a complaint with their supplier — and just 32% had it resolved to their satisfaction.The most common reason for the complaint was a billing problem (64%), followed by inaccurate meter readings (23%) and customer service (14%).

Meanwhile, as part of its own lobbying process, the Federation of Small Businesses is surveying its members to see how many of them would qualify for energy redress under the different thresholds.

20% to 40% is the most common increase in bills

One in five licensees saw energy bills increase by 40% to 60% in the past three years, the survey shows. The most common increase was 20% to 40%, with one in three hosts falling into that bracket. Almost one in four (23%) saw bills rise by up to 20%. But a significant proportion saw much bigger rises, with 6% seeing bills increase between 100% and 200%. In addition 4% said that bills were more than 200% higher than three years ago.

High bills eat into profits

Many licensees are paying a double-digit percentage of their turnover on energy bills.

The survey shows 17% spend 11%-15% of turnover, while 8% pay 16%-20%, 5% spend 21%-25% and 3% spend more than 25%. The most popular bracket is 5%-10%, with 43% in that bracket, while 23% spend less than 5% of their turnover on bills.