Speaking to the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee yesterday (29 October) concerning the recent wave of bill hikes which have swept around the country’s energy industry, three of the largest suppliers said strategic moves to diversify their retail businesses beyond traditional tariffs would give them an edge in winning new customers.

William Morris, managing director of retail for SSE, said the goods currently on offer within the sector are limited, adding a paradigm shift into areas together with home services and telephony would give it a neater service to market to consumers. The business has recently launched an O2 Priority-style rewards scheme to capture more shopper data, while E.ON is asking to broaden its energy efficiency services next year.  

Morris adds: “We should inject more diversity of goods into our offers in order that there’s a perception from customers that they’re getting a neater service from us. We must always be observing bringing home services and telephony to the market to make it more diverse. “

E.ON’s UK chief executive Tony Cocker echoed the decision for expansion into new areas, urging MPs to launch a contest inquiry into the entire utilities market. The business, which has yet to announce price rises, said a review will be vital to restoring customer trust inside the industry. It echoes an identical plea by rival provider EDF Energy earlier this month.

Cocker adds: “I fundamentally believe that this market is competitive but we’re not trusted and therefore i suspect we have to have an exceptionally thorough competition commission investigation.”

Ofgem, which has drawn criticisms from Labour leader Ed Miliband and campaign groups for not being harder at the UK’s biggest suppliers, told MPs on the same hearing that competition will be examined as portion of a much broader review of the field due out in Spring 2014.

The Big Six energy firms were accused of behaving like a “chorus line acting in concert” by MPs on the same hearing following widespread price increases of as much as 10 per cent. The provider blamed the pointy increases on rising wholesale prices, green taxes and transport costs, but admitted they had to be better at “articulating” theses reasons to customers.  

The announcements come just days after Prime Minister David Cameron revealed he was “frustrated” with the dominance of the enormous Six firms and desired to make a “big 60” market, with greater choice for consumers and  “healthy” competition keeping prices down. Details of the contest review is about to be outlined later this week in Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey’s annual statement.