MPs on the Select Committee on Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) have called on the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to scrutinise the proposed merger  between SSE and Npower’s retail arms. The committee wants the CMA to carry out a full investigation as MPs are concerned that the merger may lessen competition and affect energy consumers.

Committee chair Rachel Reeves MP, said: “The energy market isn’t working for consumers. The proposed merger between SSE and Npower risks damaging the development of a more competitive energy market, reducing consumer choice, and threatening to be a bad deal for energy consumers. The CMA needs to look at the potential impacts of this merger and launch a full investigation if there is any risk to competition within the energy market”.

In a letter to the CMA, the committee pointed out that the merger would reduce major energy suppliers to five, and that just two companies, British Gas and the merged SSE/Npower, would have over half the market.