Original article ISPreview UK:
The National Audit Office (NAO), which acts as an independent public spending watchdog for the UK, has today published a new report that examines the work done by Ofwat, Ofgem and Ofcom to ensure that residential consumers of water and energy supplies and broadband services – particularly vulnerable users – receive good outcomes. Needless to say, some improvement required.
The report, which is particularly focused on the experience of consumers in vulnerable circumstances, highlights how millions of people across the UK experience permanent or temporary circumstances that can create barriers to engaging confidently or effectively with the aforementioned services. The regulators naturally have statutory duties to protect or further the interests of such consumers.
NOTE: Sadly the scope of this report did not extend to pricing or related methodology; service quality (e.g. broadband speeds); investment in, and the maintenance and resilience of, physical networks; environmental change and impact on the supply of services; online safety for internet users; and the financial resilience of companies. Suffice to say, it doesn’t touch on bugbears like mid-contract price hikes.
For example, in recent years Ofcom has introduced various measures and facilitated industry agreements to help tackle a number of issues, such as by making it easier to switch providers, ensuring consumers get more information at the end of their contract, greater transparency of contract terms and measures to help tackle issues of affordability and debt etc. Much of this has had a positive impact.
The new report was, however, specifically focused on examining how regulators are setting expectations for consumer experience and outcomes, as well as how well they monitor this and respond to challenges for customers in financially vulnerable circumstances (it also looked at what they’ve done to address barriers for customers with extra access, communication or safety needs).
Key Findings of the Report
Overall, in March 2025, approximately 1.9 million households were in debt on their electricity accounts, and 1.6 million were in debt on their gas accounts. Customer debt to energy supply companies, at the time, totalled £4.3bn. Customer debt has more than doubled in real terms, increasing by 118%, since March 2021. But sadly we don’t get a figure for broadband providers, although it’s reasonable to assume that those in debt elsewhere may have difficulty affording their broadband too.
In terms of telecoms, the report noted how only 34% of eligible broadband customers were aware of cheaper social tariffs in April 2026 (example), while 64% of broadband customers who complained to their provider in the last six months were satisfied with the ease of finding their contact details. But consumers in financially vulnerable circumstances also reported lower than average satisfaction (e.g. consumer satisfaction for broadband customers in such a situation was 4 percentage points lower).
The report goes on to note that regulators “have not fully resolved” the problem of customers finding it difficult to contact companies supplying them (e.g. email addresses being hard to find on websites). Meanwhile, consumers are “often” not being directed to the relevant dispute resolution service (ombudsman), while billing also continues to be a “consistent cause of complaints” to such dispute resolution services.
Finally, despite regulators setting out their expectations for companies to protect consumer interests, the regulators’ own performance measures often fail to reflect consumer outcomes.
NAO Report Statement
The three regulators have undertaken a wide range of actions regarding protection for consumers, and particularly consumers in vulnerable circumstances, since we last reported. The regulators have made clearer their expectations of companies in providing services to consumers. They have encouraged companies to support customers in vulnerable circumstances, and they have taken action when companies have exposed these consumers to potential harm.
Changes in the external environment mean that the need to ensure that consumers in vulnerable circumstances are protected has become more acute. Issues persist, including communication challenges, lower satisfaction among consumers in financially vulnerable circumstances, limited take-up of social tariffs, growth in customer debt, and inconsistencies in how companies address barriers to access for consumers with additional access, communication and safety needs.
While regulators in every sector have made tangible improvements, there is more for regulators to do to support consumers in vulnerable circumstances. In addition, in the absence of outcome-focused performance metrics, there is a risk that regulators continue to judge their own performance based on activities rather than consumer outcomes.
We think the NAO makes some very valid points, particularly about the risk of regulators continuing to judge their own performance based on activities rather than consumer outcomes. Often, we do see plenty of measures being introduced by Ofcom, but not enough effort being put into assessing the actual consumer outcomes of those, aside from the occasional generalised opinion poll here or there. A more targeted approach may well help, particularly if it then encourages regulators to respond more proactively.
The report then goes on to make a series of recommendations, and we’ll list the ones below that are directly related to Ofcom and the broadband market.
Key Recommendations for Ofcom
➤ Review or evaluate options for making it easier for consumers to contact their company using communication channels that meet their needs.
➤ Take steps to increase the percentage of consumers being effectively signposted to the relevant ombudsman in the event of an unresolved complaint.
➤ Increase awareness among consumers of the availability of social tariffs, particularly among those with the greatest need for them. This should include reviewing which actions are most effective in raising awareness, encouraging innovation by companies and publicising good practice.
➤ Evaluate evidence and its approach to understanding the experiences of broadband consumers with limiting conditions, and collect additional evidence if needed.
➤ Provide a clearer account of the range of broadband consumer outcomes in their planning and reporting, including analysis demonstrating the impact of their activities on those outcomes’.
The NAO’s report is also expected to feed into a complementary forthcoming inquiry by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which is responsible for examining the value for money of UK Government projects, programmes and service delivery. The PAC are broadly also examining the effectiveness of current regulation when applied to the water, energy and broadband internet connectivity sectors (here).
NOTE: The NAO is an independent body that investigates government spending, while the PAC is a parliamentary committee that uses those same NAO reports to hold ministers and civil servants accountable.
