CMA findings should be ‘sacrosanct’, warns business group

The findings of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) should be upheld by the incoming government or it may risk its relationship with the business community, warned lobby group CBI.

The UK’s largest business group launched its thinly veiled warning to the opposition Labour Party in its 100-day ‘action plan’ campaign, following Utility Week’s exclusive interview with shadow energy minister Caroline Flint where she said her party would overrule the CMA’s findings.

Flint said the party was determined to press ahead with its plans for major reform of the market regardless of the CMA’s findings, due to be published after the election.

But the CBI has warned that the CMA should have “a strategic steer for the lifetime of the parliament that will underline, not undermine its independence”.

“Business and the government of the day need a positive relationship for the best results to secure jobs and growth,” said the CBI’s director-general John Cridland.

“The government can set the tone by ensuring the independence of the CMA is treated as sacrosanct through the lifetime of the next parliament,” he added.

The Labour Party has pledged to intervene in energy market pricing if it comes to power by forcing a price cap at the same time that it legislates to enable Ofgem to force price cuts in the future. The party then plans to disband the regulator and potentially break the vertical integration of the UK’s largest energy companies.

In early findings the CMA has indicated that it does not believe that vertical integration distorts the market, but Flint has suggested that a market shakeup could still be on the cards for a Labour government.

“I’m still committed to doing something in this area,” she said.