RIP-OFF

A coalition of trade associations representing one million small businesses is urging the energy regulator to crack down on the rogue energy brokers who rip off firms by adding billions of pounds in hidden commission fees on to energy bills.

The groups have written to Ofgem demanding it force gas and electricity suppliers to disclose how much they are paying the intermediaries. They claim that these secret commissions have inflated energy bills and compounded the cost crisis facing SMEs.

This is after the Federation of Small Businesses and the British Chambers of Commerce warned that about a quarter of the UK’s SMEs are locked into poor value energy deals that were struck when gas and electricity prices were at their peak last summer.