SSE and its energy supply brands Southern Electric, Scottish Hydro and Swalec have decided to halt cold calls and will not only contact present customers or those who have agreed to a call.

The company and its brands make a total of three million cold calls a year but the move to stop cold calls shows that the company is focusing on providing expected level of service quality to its existing customers. Watchdog Consumer Futures welcomed the move from the company by saying that such calls generally cause inconvenience to genuine stress.

A spokeswoman from watchdog Consumer Futures said, "This is good news from SSE. The impact of nuisance calls on consumers can range from inconvenience to genuine stress. It is a victory for common sense as it does not make good business sense to badger potential customers. We now need to see other suppliers follow suit."

SSE found in a research conducted by Which? That about 8 out of 10 people surveyed d received an unsolicited call in the previous month and 8 per cent had received 50 or more calls. SSE customers were urged to seek compensation from the company after the industry regulator; Ofgem fined the company £10.5 million for prolonged and extensive mis-selling.