Ofgem director Christine Farnish quits over energy price cap
A director at energy regulator Ofgem has resigned, accusing it of favouring businesses over consumers with a rule change that will add as much as £400 to the average UK household energy bill.
Christine Farnish, a non-executive member of the Gas and Electricity Markets Authority (GEMA), Ofgem’s board, tendered her resignation to the business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng in early August.
Farnish said the regulator “gave too much benefit to companies at the expense of consumers”, according to a leaked internal Ofgem announcement. Across the UK’s 27m retail energy customers a £400 annual bills increase could cost households more than £10bn.
Ofgem is under pressure after being blamed by some critics for not preventing the collapse of 29 energy suppliers since mid-2021. The crisis is expected to worsen with rising global energy prices pushing the energy price cap to more than £4,200 in January, according to estimates, more than double its current level. The bill increase is expected to add to inflation, which reached 10.1% , and deepen the cost of living crisis facing the UK.
The regulator has faced repeated criticism that it is putting business interests ahead of consumers, in particular with plans to increase the updates to the price cap from twice to four times a year. Consumer rights expert Martin Lewis has previously accused it of “selling consumers down the river”.
There has been no public announcement of Farnish’s departure, although Ofgem has removed her profile from its website. Farnish was previously on the boards of water regulator Ofwat, the Association of British Travel Agents, and has been a managing director at Barclays.
It is understood she objected to a change to the methodology used to calculate the price cap, which
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