We said in our submission that we did not think that the publicly owned energy company should be directly involved in supply. In considering what such a company could add to the market, we can see that there is now an active switching market for consumers who are engaged, who pay by direct debit and who manage their energy online. If the company is being set up specifically to deal with people who are disadvantaged within the energy market, particularly those in fuel poverty, we know about that from our experience.
Our Power was set up specifically with that aim in mind. We entered the market with one tariff for all customers no matter whether they were paying by prepayment, by direct debit or on receipt of a bill, and we embraced the warm home discount from day 1. Although we took on all those things, it is difficult to get people who are not engaged in the energy sector to switch. I do not see evidence from the work that has been done to date for the idea that a new company could come into the market and begin to make a big impact on fuel poverty, because accessing that body of consumers who are disengaged is very difficult.
In the next few years, the energy market will go through huge change. It will move away from suppliers charging people in kilowatt hours to a much more holistic energy services model in which people in a home are generating power because they have solar panels on the roof and there is storage in the home. How the energy market works and how companies deal with consumers will be different in 10 years’ time. The people who are disadvantaged in the current market will be even more disadvantaged in the future market, so the challenge will be to ensure that nobody is left behind in that energy transition.
If an agency or company is to be set up, it should look at the change that will happen in the energy sector and how we ensure that Scotland benefits from that change and that nobody is left behind. Part of that will be about what local authorities do, because they will have a role to play in that regard.
To answer your question, I do not think that a publicly owned energy company should be involved directly in the supply side.