Andy Mayer, Environment, Energy and Infrastructure Analyst at free market think tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, commented on reports that Bulb Energy has fallen into special administration
The collapse of Bulb, Britain's seventh largest retail energy company is a direct result of government policy, specifically the energy price cap.
This is the twentieth British energy company to fail since global gas prices rose sharply this year, yet the government persists in this policy, while promoting a fiction of fairness and control through central planning that has real consequences. The result is a 400 per customer difference between wholesale and retail prices, multiple business failures, and temporary state ownership of an insolvent business.
Bulb's customers will be protected, through the Special Administrator Regime, but their creditors and investors will suffer, leading to a wider loss of confidence in energy concerns.
Who would choose to invest in a market where the government has shown a willingness to let companies go to the wall rather than break political promises on prices they cannot keep? Prices are going to have to rise regardless, but the damage will already have been done. It is time to end the price cap.
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