Ofgem Consumer First Panel, Year 7, Wave 1: Exploring trust and the Retail Market Review remedies
Reports, plans and updates
Publication date
Industry sector
Supply and Retail Market
In 2015, Ofgem commissioned Ipsos MORI to conduct Year 7 of the Consumer First Panel, the flagship project within Ofgem's Consumer First initiative. This deliberative projects brings a broad group of domestic energy consumers together 3-4 times over the course of a year to feed into Ofgem’s policy making. For this Panel a total of 76 Panellists were recruited to broadly reflect the full range of energy consumers in Great Britain. Workshops of three hours took place between 21st July and 13th August 2015 in four different locations (Peterborough, Dumfries, Exeter and Cardiff).
In August 2013, Ofgem published its domestic Retail Market Review (RMR) proposals to promote consumer engagement in the energy market and improve competition between suppliers. This Panel adds a qualitative perspective to existing quantitative research on RMR. As such, it provides a richer understanding of the current consumer perspective on complex issues like trust in energy suppliers. It also allows for a more in-depth exploration of consumers’ experiences and understanding of some of the specific information remedies introduced as part of the review.
The aims for this year’s first Panel events were to understand:
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consumers’ views of their own and other energy suppliers;
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the extent to which trust influences consumer behaviour in the energy market; and,
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awareness, understanding and use of some of the Retail Market Review information remedies introduced by Ofgem.