The Company That Cannot Ignore You

Citizens Advice holds a legal mandate that forces UK energy companies to respond, and wants it extended to housing, telecoms, and water. Citizens Advice | statutory consumer advocate | energy market regulation | consumer protection | EU energy policy Tom Lowe leads the energy networks and systems team at Citizens Advice, the statutory consumer advocate for energy in Great Britain. Sixteen years across energy suppliers, trade associations, regulators, and consumer advocacy shape his argument that a legal mandate, rather than goodwill, is what makes a market answerable to the people it serves. In this episode: Why a statutory mandate changes how companies and regulators respond to a consumer body The fifteen-year path from a flagged problem with energy brokers to direct Ofgem regulation The case made in Building Better Markets for extending the model into housing, telecoms, water, and financial services How the advocate function is funded through an industry levy, and what protects that funding from becoming a dependency What an EU member state would need in place to replicate the model beyond the United Kingdom Energ'Ethic is a podcast on the social dimensions of the energy transition, hosted by Marine Cornelis, founder of Next Energy Consumer.