Energy regulator Ofgem has today published proposals to promote competition for electricity connections to new housing developments and street lighting.

Forum Response: Ofgem

Richard Ramsay, managing director for regulation and financial affairs at Ofgem, told ePolitix.com: "Ofgem and consumer body Energywatch have received many complaints from local authorities and housing developers about the lack of choice, high prices and poor levels of service provided by the distribution companies for electricity connections.

"To tackle this problem, we will be bringing in a number of initiatives which will start to open up the connections work to effective competition. This will allow developers and local authorities to shop around for better deals from a list of registered companies."

Forum Response: London Electricity

A spokesman for London Electricity told ePolitix.com: "We are looking at Ofgem's proposals in detail. While we support the idea of competition in principle we fear that some fundamental practical, safety and quality issues which the whole industry raised with the regulator may still not have been fully addressed."