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News

Britain’s top energy switchers revealed

New figures – published today by Energy UK’s Energy Switch Guarantee – reveal that customers in Stockton-On-Tees in County Durham are the top energy switchers in Great Britain with 1 in 4 of them changing their supplier in 2020.

England leads the top 10 ranking – with Stockton-On-Tees, East Riding of Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Wokingham, Warrington, Bracknell Forest, West Berkshire, Cheshire East and Northumberland accounting for 9 of the top 10 spots. Scottish Borders is the only other area in the top 10.

The local authority rankings are ordered by the percentage of properties that switched electricity supplier between January and December 2020. On average around 1 in 5 customers switched energy supplier in 2020.

The Energy Switch Guarantee (ESG) is a voluntary industry initiative launched by Energy UK in June 2016. It represents a set of 10 commitments made by energy suppliers to ensure that switching is simple, speedy and safe for customers. The ESG covers nearly 80% of the market.

Matthew Cole, independent chair of the Energy Switch Guarantee, said:

Around 6 million customers switched supplier last year despite the pandemic and switching is on the rise so far in 2021.

“Our annual figures show that although some areas of the country – such as Stockton-On-Tees – are taking advantage of the deals and services on offer from over 50 suppliers, others are missing out.

“With further easing of the lockdown restrictions and summer fast approaching, I’d encourage consumers to get in touch with their supplier or have a look online to make sure they’re on the best deal for them, even if they won’t be spending as much time at home or turning their heating on.

“It could take as little as 15 minutes to shop around for the right deal and customers can save hundreds of pounds on their energy bills. For added reassurance that their switch will be simple, speedy and safe, consumers can check their new supplier is signed up to the Energy Switch Guarantee.”

Scotland is home to Great Britain’s least frequent switchers in Na h-Eileanan Siar where 12% of properties switched provider in 2020.

In total, 6 of the bottom 10 areas are in Scotland, including Highland, Orkney Islands, Inverclyde, Argyll and Bute, and Shetland Islands. The remaining 4 areas of the bottom 10 are Ceredigion, Isle of Anglesey, Pembrokeshire and Gwynedd in Wales.

ENDS

Notes to editors

  • The area switching data referenced shows the percentage of domestic and non-domestic properties per upper local authority which moved to a new energy supplier between January and December 2020 in Great Britain.
  • Constituency level data was aggregated to Upper Local Authority (ULA) level and for constituencies that overlapped several ULAs, switches were allocated to each ULA proportional to each ULA’s size in terms of the number of households.
  • Switching data is supplied by Gemserv Limited, the service company contracted by the MRA Service Company (MRASCo) to provide services in support of the MRA including the management of its governance and providing specialised expertise to MRASCo in support of the growing electricity retail market.
  • Gemserv updated the total number of switches in 2020 to 5,974,721 accounting for corrections they made to April and May figures recently. 8,431 switches in 2020 could not be attributed to any area due to unclear postcodes.
  • The data referenced for 2017 (below), when the Energy Switch Guarantee published a breakdown of area switching, shows the percentage of domestic properties per constituency who switched electricity supplier between September 2016 and August 2017 in Great Britain.
  • The Energy Switch Guarantee (ESG) is a set of 10 commitments – launched by Energy UK in 2016 – that makes switching simple, speedy and safe. The Guarantee covers nearly 80% of the retail energy market. Find out more on the ESG website.
  • Signatories include: British Gas, Bulb, E.ON, ESB, Go.to Energy, Green Energy, Green Network Energy, Igloo Energy, Octopus Energy, Outfox the Market, Pure Planet, Shell Energy, So Energy and SSE.
  • View the latest monthly electricity switching reports on the Energy UK website.
  Top 10 areas Bottom 10 areas
1 Stockton-On-Tees Na h-Eileanan Siar
2 East Riding of Yorkshire Orkney Islands
3 Scottish Borders Shetland Islands
4 Wokingham Ceredigion
5 West Yorkshire Argyll and Bute
6 Warrington Inverclyde
7 Bracknell Forest Isle of Anglesey
8 West Berkshire Gwynedd
9 Cheshire East Pembrokeshire
10 Northumberland Highland