Response to Ofgem's working paper on the impact of COVID-19 on the 7th price cap period

Response to Ofgem's working paper on the impact of COVID-19 on the 7th price cap period [ 240 kb]

Ofgem was consulting on whether the energy price cap for the period October 2021 to March 2022 should contain an additional allowance for bad debt resulting from the pandemic. We argued that there was so much uncertainty on how the pandemic might affect the economy during that period that an additional allowance could not be set, noting that if one were included it would adversely affect consumers by increasing their bills. If Ofgem were to determine that one was needed, we preferred its proposal to adjust the methodology it had previously used to allow it to filter out bad data.