LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s energy regulator Ofgem will require all major suppliers to offer lower standing charge tariffs by the end of January 2026, it said on Wednesday, while adding that the move was unlikely to reduce overall bills.
Standing charges are daily fixed fees added to unit prices customers pay for gas and electricity, designed to cover costs of connecting to the energy system.
Consumer groups have criticised them as unfair because they are paid regardless of household energy consumption.
Under the new rules, suppliers will likely shift costs currently recovered through standing charges to other areas of bills like higher unit energy prices, Ofgem said.
However, the regulator and the government said the changes would give customers more choice over their energy bills.
“This proposal will make more tariffs available on the market, giving people more options to pay lower standing charges if that suits their needs,” Britian’s Minister for Energy Consumers Martin McCluskey said in the Ofgem release.
(Reporting By Susanna TwidaleEditing by Bernadette Baum)
