Citizens Advice, together with the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, Fair by Design, Which?, E.ON UK, Octopus Energy, Rebel Energy and So Energy, has written to Ofgem urging the regulator to reconsider its proposal to remove the Ban on Acquisition-only Tariffs (BAT)1. The letter is dated 29 June 20241.
"Citizens Advice together with the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, Fair by Design, Which?, E.ON UK, Octopus Energy, Rebel Energy and So Energy have written to Ofgem urging that they reconsider their proposal to remove the Ban on Acquisition only Tariffs (BAT)."
Acquisition-only tariffs are deals reserved for new customers. The ban on them, which the letter refers to as BAT, currently prevents suppliers from offering prices that are available only to households switching in. Ofgem has proposed removing that ban; the letter responds to that proposal1.
The signatories span a consumer advice body, anti-poverty and fairness organisations, a consumer group and four energy suppliers. Citizens Advice is the statutory consumer advocate for energy in Great Britain, and its role alongside other consumer bodies is set out in its energy consumer bodies guidance1. The letter itself is published as a public document on the Citizens Advice site1.
The published page does not set out the detailed arguments in the letter, the number of households affected, or any estimate of the cost or benefit of the change. Those details sit in the attached letter, which has not been summarised in the text published alongside it1. Ofgem's own reasoning for proposing the removal of the ban is not reproduced in the letter page1.
Why it matters for households
A ban on acquisition-only tariffs keeps the same headline deal open to both new and existing customers. If it is removed, suppliers would be free to price a tariff for switchers only, which existing customers on standard variable or other tariffs could not access without changing supplier or tariff themselves.
For a household's energy independence, the practical question is whether the cheapest advertised price is reachable from where the household already sits. A market with acquisition-only deals can reward switching and leave households that stay put paying more, which matters most where a household cannot switch easily, for example because of a restricted meter, a debt balance or a prepayment arrangement. The letter's signatories include organisations that work on fuel poverty and fairness, which indicates the concern is about households that are least able to move1.
The letter does not state what outcome the signatories want beyond reconsideration of the proposal, and no alternative design for the rules is set out in the published text1.
What happens next
Ofgem has not responded to the letter in the material published on 29 June 2024, and no date for a decision on the proposal is given1. Whether the ban is removed, retained or amended has not been reported1.