Since 2018, more than 30 UK energy suppliers have gone bust. When a supplier collapses, its customers are transferred to a "supplier of last resort" chosen by Ofgem - usually onto that supplier's most expensive standard variable tariff. Credit balances get frozen for weeks or months. Direct debits get messy. And the customer who thought they'd found a bargain ends up worse off than when they started.
Every comparison site in the UK will show you the cheapest tariff. None of them tell you whether the supplier behind that tariff is financially stable.
Until now.
Every tariff on the EnergyScan comparison page now carries a Financial Health badge - a simple grade from A to F, calculated from publicly available data and displayed right alongside the price and the Ofgem complaints rating.
Grade A (Established) means the supplier has deep financial backing, a long track record, and no red flags. Grade B (Stable) means a solid supplier with a good track record but smaller scale. Grade C (Newer) means a younger or smaller supplier where the track record is still being built. Grade D (Caution) means there are specific risk factors worth knowing about. Grade F (At Risk) would mean serious financial distress - we don't currently have any F-rated suppliers on our comparison page, but the grade exists for a reason.
The idea is straightforward: you should know not just which tariff is cheapest, but whether the supplier behind it is likely to still be around in 12 months.
The score is built from six signals, all sourced from public data. We publish the full methodology on our How We Calculate page, but here's the summary.
Customer base size (25 points) is the heaviest signal. Supplier failures correlate most strongly with small customer bases and thin financial buffers. A company supplying 5 million homes has vastly more resilience than one supplying 5,000. The Big 6 and large independents score highest here.
Years actively supplying (20 points) measures how long the company has actually been delivering energy to domestic customers. We use active supply years, not incorporation date - a company that was set up in 2013 but only started supplying homes in 2023 gets two years, not eleven.
Corporate group history (20 points) checks whether the supplier or its parent companies are linked to previously failed energy suppliers. This is where due diligence matters. Some corporate groups have a pattern of setting up suppliers that later collapse - and some of those groups are still active in the market.
Accounts transparency (15 points) looks at whether the company files full accounts with Companies House or only abbreviated micro-entity accounts. Full accounts give visibility into the balance sheet. Abbreviated accounts mean limited financial visibility, which is itself a risk signal.
Company status (10 points) is a simple check - is the company active, or is it in administration, liquidation, or some other distressed state?
Financial backing (10 points) captures whether there's a well-capitalised parent behind the brand. A supplier owned by a FTSE-listed company or backed by major institutional investors has a safety net that a privately-owned micro-company doesn't.
Each signal contributes to a score out of 100, which maps to the A-F grade.
The Big 6 - British Gas, EDF, E.ON Next, Scottish Power - all score 100 and carry an A rating. They have decades of supply history, listed parent companies, and millions of customers. They're not going anywhere.
Large independents like OVO Energy and Utility Warehouse also score A. OVO has Mitsubishi as a major investor and acquired SSE's entire retail book. Utility Warehouse is part of FTSE-listed Telecom Plus.
Established smaller suppliers like Good Energy, Ecotricity, 100Green, and Outfox Energy carry a B rating. These are well-run companies with strong track records - but being smaller means less financial buffer, and that's reflected in the score. B is not a warning; it's an honest reflection of scale.
Newer or less transparent suppliers like Home Energy and Fuse Energy sit at C. Both are active and legitimate, but with shorter track records or limited financial visibility, the score reflects the fact that history hasn't yet proven them out.
And then there's the D grade - currently held by one supplier on our comparison page. We won't name them here, but their corporate group is linked to multiple previously failed energy suppliers, they file only abbreviated accounts, and they have fewer than 10,000 customers. The tariff might be cheap. The risk is real.
Some brands on the comparison page aren't independent suppliers - they're white-labels operated by a larger company. Sainsbury's Energy is actually E.ON Next. Co-op Energy is actually Octopus Energy. London Power is supplied by Octopus on behalf of the Greater London Authority.
In each case, we show the white-label brand but inherit the financial health rating from the operating supplier. If you switch to Sainsbury's Energy, it's E.ON Next processing your supply - so you get E.ON Next's financial health grade. We flag this on the badge so there's no ambiguity.
Comparison sites earn commission when you switch. The cheaper the tariff, the more likely you are to click. Showing a warning badge next to a cheap tariff from a financially fragile supplier reduces clicks and reduces commission.
EnergyScan earns from subscriptions, not just from switches. Our incentive is to keep you on the best deal long-term - and "best" means factoring in whether the supplier will still be trading when your fixed deal is supposed to end.
We also disclose exactly which suppliers pay us commission, and exactly how the financial health score is calculated. The methodology is on our How We Calculate page. Every data point is from a public source. You can check it yourself.
If your energy supplier fails, Ofgem appoints a "supplier of last resort" (SoLR) to take over your account. Here's what typically happens.
You get transferred to whichever supplier Ofgem selects - you don't get a choice. You're usually placed on that supplier's standard variable tariff, which is almost always the most expensive option available. Any credit balance you had with your old supplier gets frozen while the administrators sort things out - this can take weeks or months. Your direct debit to the old supplier is cancelled, but your new supplier will set up a new one, often at a different amount. And if you were on a competitive fixed deal, that deal is gone - you're starting from scratch.
It's not the end of the world, but it is a hassle, a cost, and completely avoidable if you check the financial health of the supplier before you switch.
The financial health ratings are live right now on the EnergyScan comparison page. If you're already a subscriber, log in and run a comparison - you'll see the badge on every tariff card.
If you're not a subscriber, you can use our free price cap checker to see your regional rates, or upload a bill for a full comparison including financial health grades.
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Full methodology: energyscan.co.uk/how-we-calculate. Data sources: Companies House, Ofgem, public filings. Ratings updated monthly.
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