UK Energy Incubator Hub Ltd has been issued with a provisional order by Ofgem for failing to ensure customer service arrangements and processes are “complete, thorough and fit for purpose”.
The order compels the energy supplier to ensure customers can contact them easily, that complaints are dealt with in a timely manner and that complaint remedies as determined by the Ombudsman Services are implemented without delay.
Until UK Energy Incubator Hub – which was previously called Euston Energy – has met these points, it is banned from taking on new customers. The company has around 3,000 domestic customers and operates under two brands: Northumbria Energy and Neo Energy.
The latter’s website notes: “We are currently not onboarding. Please join our waiting list and we will let you know once we are ready to offer you one of the cheapest tariffs on the market again.”
Ofgem added that it expects UK Energy Incubator Hub to now comply with the provisional order’s requirements and engage fully and in a constructive manner.
Failure to do so many result in further action being taken by the regulator, which could include stripping the supplier of its licence to operate in the British market and/or a financial penalty.
“Our top priority at Ofgem is to protect consumers and make sure we are holding suppliers of essential services like energy to the highest of standards. Where this is not happening, we will not hesitate to act,” said Ofgem director of enforcement and emerging issues, Cathryn Scott.
Euston Energy has previously been issued a final order by Ofgem for failing to become a Data Communications Company user. Along with four other suppliers – Daligas, Enstroga, Entice Energy Supply and Symbio Energy, all of which have since shuttered – Euston Energy was issued the order in March 2020 following a consultation in January of that year.
UK Energy Incubator Hub has been approached for comment.
