LPG Gas Suppliers

I involved my MP back in January who tried valiantly on behalf of his (mainly) rural constituents to voice concerns in Parliament about domestic energy prices, in particular, those reliant on bulk LPG and oil. He and 20 other MPs signed a parliamentary motion. Sadly he does not belong to one of the 3 main London parties who follow essentially the same market philosophy and so the motion went unheeded.
It is the unregulated nature of the LPG market that I find so concerning with the threads here testifying to the appalling range of price discrepancies around the country with little or no transparency as to why they exist.
I will certainly join you and write to Mr Huhne to ensure LPG is included in his plans.

Morning!
Have just had a letter from Calor Gas, to ask me to renew their contract for 2 years, but of course no price mentioned as to what I would be paying! 2 years ago it was 33p ltr, now it is 55p per ltr and 16p per day standing charge.
I wonder if as landowner of the property, I could charge the supplier rent for the land say starting at 20p per day?
The cost of LPG is now so high, I am thinking of alternatives to heating the property, namely solar, ground source heat pumps or electric.
I will be writing as you suggest to the Energy secretary and also my MP, though as I live in the far north of Scotland, it’s unlikely to do any good.
Keep up the good work.

I have written to the Energy Secretary as you suggest.

As well as headline prices, I am concerned about the practice of getting customers to tie themselves into a supplier for extended periods. Whilst I accept that the company may need to recoup it’s investment in a new installation, I am concerned that suppliers are trying to “trick” customers into tying themselves in for longer than they need.

I have just received a letter from my supplier, Calor, asking me to sign an exclusive contract with them for another 2 years. There’s absolutely no benefit to me doing this – if I do nothing, Calor will continue to supply me at the same price for as long as I wish – but the way the letter is written pretty much implies that I need to sign up or I won’t continue to have a gas supply; I am quite sure that many vulnerable people (particularly the elderly) respond to these letters by committing themselves to exclusive contracts that only benefit the suppliers.

We need transparency in pricing and plain English contracts and renewals to protect vulnerable customers from sharp practice.

I’ve today received a reply from the Dept of Energy & Climate Change (DECC)in response to my contacting the Energy Secretary.
The OFT is due to report later this month (October 2011) into a study it launched in January 2011 to investigate the issues affecting those who are not on the gas-grid; exploring the longer term consumer issues such as lifetime payback, consumer standards and labelling for alternative energy sources or supplies.
The study promises to provide an independent assessment of the off-grid market and establish what further action may be necessary to ensure it works properly.
Website for further details: http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/market-studies/oft1302f.pdf.

I have written to Chris Huhne today. I have also ordered lpg from Countrywide and have knocked them down to 42ppl + 5% VAT (the last letter of increase I received was dated December 2 2010 and I have not received one since then (36ppl up to 39.9ppl). Countrywide said that they show that increased price letters were sent out in late December 2010 and March 2011. When I challenged them with non-receipt they offered me a price of 42ppl. We are a business customer but domestic users should be able to get the same unit price and business users should get a discount based on annual usage – this would be much fairer.

Please look at commodity prices for bulk lpg – I suspect the graph is very similar to the NYMEX where the crude oil prices have come down to US$75.67 but in our area the fuel price is still up at £1.359!