Today (3 April), the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has issued a call for evidence to understand whether the home insulation market is working effectively for consumers.
Manufacturers, distributors, trade bodies, consumer groups and others are being asked for their feedback to enable the OFT to establish whether there are aspects of the market that could be restricting the entry of new competitors and therefore limiting consumer choice and making prices artificially high.
The OFT says it has received submissions suggesting that the market does not work as well as it should. One issue raised is that agreements between businesses at different levels of the supply chain can prevent competitors from sourcing as much insulation as they want and restricting supply to consumers as a result. It is hoped that the call for evidence will help the OFT to get a clearer picture of any problems in the market and determine whether further work in this area may be necessary.
There are also concerns about the high volume of consumer complaints in the market. Last year, for instance, the Consumer Direct advice service received nearly 3,000 complaints about solid and cavity wall insulation.
The OFT says it will investigate the issues raised by consumer complaints and monitor consumer law compliance across the sector more widely, as part of a bigger project aimed at improving the way the energy efficiency sector works for consumers.
Director in the OFT's Services, Infrastructure and Public Markets Group, Nisha Arora, said: 'The Government's proposed Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation policies are likely to increase the take-up of energy-efficiency measures, so it is important that we examine the home insulation market now to ensure that it is working well for consumers.'
People are asked to submit any evidence before 2 May and the OFT plans to publish its findings in July.
For more information visit www.oft.gov.uk
