Energy supply switching in the UK - statistics & facts
While switching energy supply became popular in the United Kingdom in recent years due to a growth in competition and options available, a recent survey found that the share of British consumers who had switched energy suppliers in the previous 12 months dropped from over one-third of the respondents in 2020 to around 10 percent in 2022. Since the end of 2021, the instability of the global energy market and the soaring energy prices exacerbated by the UK’s exit from the European Union have brought the number of electricity supplier switches to record lows.
The rise in prices shrunk profit margins, causing almost 30 energy suppliers to become insolvent in the UK in 2021, which affected more than 2.7 million customers. With the reliability of small suppliers put in check, another switching trend was reversed. Between the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, switches to larger energy suppliers surpassed the switches to smaller suppliers for the first time.
A decade of highs and lows
Throughout 2021 and 2022, gas and electricity prices soared across Europe. With wholesale prices reaching the government’s regulated tariff cap and suppliers unable to offer attractive deals, the number of switches started to decline at the end of 2021. The number of British households adopting a new electricity or gas supplier in 2022 declined by roughly 80 percent over the previous year when more than 600,000 energy customers overall switched their energy suppliers each month.The rise in prices shrunk profit margins, causing almost 30 energy suppliers to become insolvent in the UK in 2021, which affected more than 2.7 million customers. With the reliability of small suppliers put in check, another switching trend was reversed. Between the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022, switches to larger energy suppliers surpassed the switches to smaller suppliers for the first time.
