Wednesday was a good day for the business select committee to announce an inquiry into the crisis in the retail energy market, and why so many suppliers – 26 at the last count – have failed. Citizens Advice has just provided MPs with a perfect pre-read: a quietly devastating analysis of the “catalogue of errors”, as it puts it, committed by Ofgem, the regulator.
The report is an excellent counterblast to the self-serving official narrative that says mass collapses appeared out of a clear sky, and that “unprecedented” spikes in the prices of gas were the sole culprit. Nobody, of course, doubts that the surges in wholesale markets triggered the crisis, but the story is more complicated.
The relevant question is whether Ofgem should have been
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