The lawlessness and lack of Government commitment has allowed pirates to flourish and regularly hijack sensible businesses already battling against the downturn – and I don’t mean off the Somalian coast. Not unreasonably many businesses today can scarcely comprehend the disingenuous and underhand behaviour of the UK’s Energy Companies. Against a background of wholesale energy costs much lower than the peaks of last year, do we see these reduced costs passed onto businesses? No.

What we get instead is poorly substantiated bleating of poverty from the Energy companies themselves, resulting in increasing energy contract prices, more arduous credit terms, obscene ‘out of contract’ rates and, guess what, energy companies racking up the profits.

They’ve got us all well and truly strapped over that ‘oil barrel’. You might wonder who is protecting Business at this time; it all seems a bit ineffectual. What do Ofgem, Consumer Focus and other advisory groups actually achieve?

If you think back to your school day economics lessons, I’m sure you’ll all remember the bad old Oligopolies and their ‘Imperfect Competition’. We were all told when the Energy Industry de-regulated we would have fierce price competitiveness. Well those days are long gone now they’ve got their market share and we’re pretty much left in thrall to the ‘Big Six’. In Oligopolies firms use non-price competition in order to accrue greater revenue and market share, for example ‘Rollover Contracts’, Out of Contract Penalty Rates, blanket Objections to businesses changing Suppliers, appalling levels of service when things go wrong.

Legislation is just about beginning to touch some of these issues; increased transparency on where they’re making the profits, Contract confirmations in writing after face-to-face sales visits (no really), proper billing data and improved debt transfer terms.

The Energy Companies patently have powerful lobbyists and we need to give support to those (really) fighting our corner. In the meantime make sure you or someone professional representing you is very closely managing your Energy Contracts. Don’t just keep paying the increasing Renewal rates, do something now.

Let’s see if we can blast Those Pirates Out of the Water!