I sit on several Governmental Calls on your behalf as SCOPHRA Chair, these have many other organisations across Scotland.
Two calls last week were –
Rural Energy Consumers stakeholders
And
Vulnerable Consumers Roundtable
Both calls have many key organisations attending and they are hosted by Scottish Government officials.
Examples of organisations are – Ofgem, Citizens Advice Scotland, Advice Direct Scotland, Age Scotland, OVO, Octopus Energy, EON, Inclusion Scotland, and the list goes on.
These are key calls that SCOPHRA is now invited to in our own right, and we are listened to when we highlight the issues our members face.
Areas that I raised across both calls were –
- Park homeowners do not have the same energy consumer protections. While Ofgem publishes guidance, it is not always followed by park owners and there is no accountability or means of ensuring compliance
- The PSR does not work for park home residents who buy their fuel from the park owner. Many of these residents cannot access the PSR, even although a high proportion of them should be on it. This is putting many of them in danger during utility outages.
- Consumer Scotland (CS) is also planning work on park homes residents in the next few months and happy to discuss further with SCOPHRA
- People who live in park homes buy electricity and gas from the park owners, so they are not allowed to build any debt. There are laws and guidelines of what park owners can charge but there is no control or accountability, and a lot of park owners are overcharging residents
- A high percentage of park home residents are vulnerable for a variety of different reasons. Many of them rely on electricity for medical devices, electrical beds, chairs, etc. There is nothing they can do as they can’t move suppliers as they do not have access to the open utility market. There is very little suitable advice available to them as many advisors, companies are not aware that they cannot access the general utility market.
Actions that were taken away from these calls that were specific to park homes was –
- JM and MC (Ofgem) to engage on Ofgem standing charges, debt relief proposals, and park home consumer protections in more detail.
- CS to engage with SCOPHRA on CS’s upcoming work on park home residents.
I will keep you all updated as we see progress on any action.
Looking forward to speaking to many of you at the conference in October.
All the best
Gordon Morrison
SCOPHRA – Chair and Executive Team Member