THE PRICE cap has been a "terrible public policy failure" which has driven up bills for customers, Good Energy chief executive Nigel Pocklington has warned.

Pocklington was speaking with City A.M. following Good Energy's latest halfyear results published yesterday, which included a 168 per cent boost in pretax profit for the first six months of the year.

After its £32.7m intake, he told City A.M.

that the price cap's continued existence in the retail market exposed the lack of urgency in government's approach to the energy market, which was not keeping pace with the speed of Ofgem's reforms.

"We accept the idea of a price cap as part of the furniture in retail energy supply, but it's a terrible public policy failure, which sounded great, but actually has cost people more money," the energy boss said.

Pocklington said this was "symptomatic" of inaction from Downing Street which was causing wider problems in the energy sector, including rising bad debt, the lack of renewables-only power pricing, and no plans for support this winter for vulnerable customers.

He added: "Nobody wants to grasp the nettle on retail market reform and whether the price cap works. Nobody wants to grasp the nettle on wholesale market reform at the cost of renewables, and how you make energy cheaper. Nobody wants to go anywhere near a social tariff type concept where you're using the welfare system rather than energy companies to deal with vulnerability and energy poverty."

Ofgem has recently unveiled consultations on the prospect of a social tariff, with chief executive Jonathan Brearley openly questioning the role of the price cap in the market.

However, such changes would require legislative action from the government - which writes the rules regulators follow, including the introduction of a price cap in 2019.

Nigel Pocklington, CEO of Good Energy

(c) 2023 City A.M., source Newspaper