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Advice around energy bills

Octopus Energy’s Greg Jackson is the first CEO of a large energy retailer to answer Martin Lewis’ questions live on air
Katie Hill - Editor-in-Chief, My Green Pod
Greg Jackson and Maritn Lewis

This evening (08 November), the founder and CEO of Octopus Energy, Greg Jackson, joined consumer champion Martin Lewis on his flagship TV show on ITV.

It is the first time a CEO of a large energy retailer has come on The Martin Lewis Money Show to respond to questions from the British public live on air.

Regarding his first time on the show, Greg Jackson said: ‘The crisis is so stressful for millions of people, and energy bosses have a duty to talk to customers, and to listen to them. Difficult conversations are often the most important and Martin’s show is one of the key places people turn for information and advice.’

UK’s outdated energy market

Prior to the show, Lewis asked his followers on Twitter to send in their questions for Jackson.

Nearly 500 people responded, asking about topics such as smart meters, green tariffs and solutions to the energy crisis. Amongst the tweets were many praising Octopus’s service.

On the show, Jackson outlined the outdated energy market in the UK which means even though green energy is cheaper to produce, it ends up as expensive as dirty gas.

Following a mention that the government is considering changing this, Greg added: ‘If we’d moved to renewables sooner as a nation, the crisis would be less bad now. And we can’t carry on like this, we have to escape from these colossal gas prices from the global markets.’

A ‘decent result’ for Bulb

Octopus Energy, a My Green Pod Hero, recently announced it has been selected to take on Bulb’s 1.5 million customers, bringing an end to taxpayer losses and uncertainty for Bulb customers and employees. Martin Lewis said on the BBC that this was a ‘decent result’ for Bulb customers. 

Martin said: ‘Octopus has a really high customer service rating in polls I’ve done. I did a lot of research and surveys on which companies were best at transferring customers and who made it as painless as possible, and Octopus came top.’

Lewis was referring to a nationwide survey his ‘Money Saving Expert’ website ran earlier this year, asking readers whose energy supplier had gone bust about their experience of being transferred to a new firm.

How Octopus supports customers

Octopus Energy launched to the market in 2016 with the aim to make energy fairer, greener and cheaper. From the outset, Octopus followed a path of transparent and clear communication – and it has continued to do so throughout the energy crisis, often singled out by industry experts for doing so. 

Around the price cap change in April this year, Lewis praised the company, tweeting that Octopus had ‘schooled other big providers on how to communicate and do customer service in an energy crisis.’

Octopus Energy is the only energy supplier recommended by Which? for five years in a row,  5 star rated on Trustpilot and the most awarded energy supplier in the country.

Since the start of the energy crisis, Octopus has absorbed £150 million of the cost increase on behalf of its customers, and used 100% of its profits to keep energy bills as low as possible.

It supports customers who are struggling with a £15 million OctoAssist fund, is sending 10,000 free electric blankets to its most vulnerable customers and its Energy Helpers will visit 500,000 customer homes this winter to offer actionable and personal advice to lower bills. 

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