Regulation Explained·29 July 2026

Energy Brokers Are About to Be Regulated. What Should Businesses Expect?

Energy brokers occupy an unusual position. They can advise a business on contracts worth hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of pounds - yet historically the sector hasn't been regulated in the way most other professional intermediaries are.

That's changing. Government has confirmed that energy brokers and comparison services - collectively known as third-party intermediaries, or TPIs - will come under Ofgem oversight, with Ofgem running a market review and consultation to work out exactly how.

What is changing

The Government's stated intention is that TPIs will need to register with Ofgem and meet "fit and proper person" requirements before operating, with a 12-18 month sunrise period proposed to let existing TPIs register once the regime goes live. Greater transparency around broker fees and commission is also central to the reforms, though the exact mechanism - for example, whether suppliers must show a broker fee as a separate line - has not yet been finalised.

What isn't yet finalised is the detail, or the timing. Primary legislation to appoint Ofgem as regulator hasn't been brought forward yet - the Government says it will do so "when parliamentary time allows" - and Ofgem's own call for input on the TPI market closed in July 2026 with findings not yet published. This is a confirmed direction of travel, not a completed reform. (Regulatory position checked against primary sources: September 2026.)

Why regulation is being introduced

The problem it's aimed at is well understood in the industry, even if it's rarely discussed openly with customers: commission that isn't disclosed, savings claims that don't hold up to scrutiny, unclear authority to act on a customer's behalf, and contract comparisons that quietly favour whichever supplier pays the broker best rather than whichever offer actually suits the customer.

None of that requires bad intent from every broker in the market - a genuinely small minority of intermediaries had signed up to the industry's existing voluntary code of practice, which tells its own story about how thin the current guardrails are.

What regulation may improve

Minimum standards, clearer disclosure of who's being paid and how much, a proper complaints route, and more confidence that a registered adviser has met some basic bar of legitimacy. That's genuinely useful, particularly for smaller organisations without a procurement team to check the small print themselves.

What regulation won't solve

A regulated intermediary can still recommend a technically compliant but commercially weak contract. Registration and disclosure don't guarantee good judgement - they guarantee a floor, not a ceiling. A broker can disclose their commission in full and still focus too heavily on the headline unit rate, misunderstand how a business actually operates, ignore its risk appetite, or overlook onsite generation and flexibility that would have changed the right answer entirely.

Regulation creates a floor. It doesn't create judgement.

Questions worth asking regardless

Whatever the final regime looks like, these are worth asking of anyone advising on an energy contract, today and after any new rules land:

Are you independent of any particular supplier?
How are you being paid, and is that included in the prices you're showing me?
Are all the offers being compared on the same basis?
Who remains responsible after the contract is signed?
What evidence actually supports this recommendation?
What happens if our consumption changes?

Sources and further reading

Regulation should make it harder to hide poor practice. It won't remove the need to ask who's advising you, how they're paid, and whether the recommendation actually fits your business - that part was always worth asking, and always will be. If you'd like a second opinion on an offer you've been given, get in touch.

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