Is collective switching the answer to the rising cost of heating our homes?

The cost of powering our homes is on the rise, but with our endless supply of electronic gadgets sucking up energy, should we be shouldering some of the responsibility? Metro talks to the energy experts to find out.

The price of gas has increased, along with electricity (Picture: PA)

It’s going to be a long, cold winter. And it’s going to be expensive.

Millions of people in Britain are struggling to heat their homes and provide for their families at the same time.

The Department for Energy and Climate Change estimates that there are 5.5m households in fuel poverty, meaning they spend at least ten per cent of their income on heat and power.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that more than 25,000 people die each winter in Britain because of the cold weather.

This all means the decision in the past month by five of the six major energy suppliers to increase their prices for gas and electricity couldn’t have come at a worse possible time.

EDF Energy, British Gas, npower, Scottish Power and Scottish and Southern Energy have all raised their prices, by an average of seven per cent, adding more than £100 to the average gas and electric bill before Christmas. They blamed rising wholesale gas prices and the cost of using the National Grid for the increases.

But what can customers do to save cash?

‘Rather than resorting to drastic and potentially dangerous measures, I would urge consumers to make their money go further by making their homes energy efficient and making sure that they are paying the lowest price for the energy they do use,’ said Tom Lyon from energy price comparison site uSwitch .

‘There are many low-cost or free insulation offers available that households can take advantage of, plus there is currently just over £300 a year difference between the cheapest and most expensive tariffs on the market. These are easy savings to make and could help households to keep their fuel bills manageable this winter.’

How much money do we waste in energy? Click below to find out


According to a uSwitch survey, almost nine out of ten households in Britain will ration their energy use this winter. It said almost 20m households went without heating at some stage last winter to keep costs low.

It says we are on the verge of an ‘affordability crisis’ and predicts that more than one in three homes will be forced to turn their heating off completely once bills hit the £1,500 a year mark.

Julia Goodfellow-Smith, director of Sustainable Living Expert , said: ‘I think it’s a really difficult time for a lot of households, and these price rises are going to hit a lot of people very hard.’

She said she wouldn’t go so far as to blame householders for using too much energy, but said simple measures such as loft and wall insulation, washing clothes in cold water and just wearing more layers instead of whacking up the heat can make a difference.

She said research indicated that about a quarter of our household electricity is now used for computers, tablets, smartphones and games consoles, items which didn’t exist in the home 30 years ago.

‘The first thing to do is to become more aware of what you’re using energy for and when,’ she said. ‘Once you know how you’re using it, you’ll be able to work out where it’s being wasted and do something about it.’

But if the success of a pilot energy pricing scheme is anything to go by, changing your energy provider on your own could be a thing of the past.

The concept of collective switching, pioneered in places such as Belgium and Holland, has arrived in Britain.

A group called Cornwall Together , made up of various partners such as the Eden Project, the NHS and local councils, has just successfully negotiated deals with energy providers to cut fuel bills for almost 7,000 people.

It registered the interest of more than 9,000 people and then asked energy companies to pitch their best deals to receive their custom.

‘We run a reverse auction, so there’s this really nice change in the way things run,’ said Matt Hastings, Cornwall Together’s project director.

‘As individuals we get squashed by the big corporates. As part of the reverse auction, the big corporates actually bid against each other in order to supply the members. It’s them working for you for a change. The cheapest price wins.’

This week, the group confirmed mass deals with providers British Gas, E.ON and Ovo, ensuring savings for 70 per cent of the 9,124 members who signed up to the first round of the scheme. The average saving is £100, but some will see their bills cut by as much as £400. Members are also given free loft and cavity wall insulation.

The plan now is to go nationwide, potentially saving millions of people money on their energy bills under UK Together.

‘I would hope that now that we’ve basically proven that lots of large companies are happy to take part in this process, the next step is saying it’s time to put a serious offer on the table that is better than what anyone else will be able to get on the market,’ said Mr Hastings.

‘What we want to do is remodel the relationship between individuals and communities and corporates.

‘We want to revolutionise the market. The market is broken at the moment and the only way we’re going to fix it is by the people joining together, standing shoulder to shoulder to do that.

‘Our whole focus is on rebalancing the power a little bit from the corporates down to the people. It’s new for them. Inevitably, these are quite big behemoths of organisations, they take quite a long time to move.

‘We have seen an unprecedented level of engagement and what we hope is that the more the numbers grow and grow, it will be a poor business decision not to engage in collective purchasing of this type because it could lose them 100,000 or 500,000 customers.’

Mr Hastings said the main motivation for the scheme was the ‘disgraceful situation’ in which people are dying because they cannot heat their homes.

‘There are certain families in certain areas where they literally cannot afford to put food on the table and keep their houses warm,’ he added.

A similar collective switching scheme is underway through Surrey County Council.

Mr Hastings maintained that we do have a responsibility to bear when it comes to energy usage.

‘The more prices go up the more we realise how lax we can be with our consumption. We can’t look at just saving money without looking at reducing consumption. The two things go hand in hand.’

The government has come under fire recently for its policy on energy consumption and alternative sources, thanks to its mixed messages on whether wind power is the answer. Its pivotal Energy Bill is expected some time this year.

Ms Goodfellow-Smith said: ‘Renewables are the most sustainable option, but we should definitely address usage as well switching to greener sources.

‘As oil and gas reserves shrink and become harder and more expensive to recover, I anticipate that energy prices will continue to rise, until we implement cost effective alternatives.’

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