Citizens Advice response to the Ofgem consultation on proposals to modify arrangements for the Over-Recovery of Allowed Revenue, Housekeeping changes to the Licence and the Baseline Margin Indexation change for the Data Communications Company
We support the amendments proposed within the consultation relating to the Data Communications Company (DCC) with the following comments:
We support the reduction of the threshold from 110% to 105% given that the threshold was originally set in a time of greater uncertainty at the outset of the DCC and that the DCC should be now better able to forecast its costs.
We welcome the introduction of a backstop date by which all outstanding over-recovered revenues should be returned to customers. The proposal is for the backstop date to be “as soon as reasonably practicable and before the end of the Licence term, or any additional term thereafter”. We would welcome clarification as to the exact operation of this backstop date. We recommend that any currently over-recovered revenues are returned to end-user consumers within the current licence term. We would also welcome clarification as to how recovery and backstop dates interact with any retail price cap in operation at that time. It is important that any over-recovery is returned to end-user consumers as soon as possible.