A COUNCILLOR has claimed the so-called ‘big six’ energy companies have “failed”, and that a “nationalised energy provider” should be set up to help those facing fuel poverty.

It follows the collapse of the White Rose Energy Company – an energy brand run by Nottingham City Council’s not-for-profit Robin Hood Energy company – in 2020.

Leeds Labour councillor David Jenkins said that many people in Leeds are still choosing to disconnect from their energy providers because they can’t afford the bills, leaving them “struggling to survive”.

But other councillors called the White Rose scheme “naive” and claimed the ultra-competitive energy market would not be so easy to meddle with.

Coun David Jenkins (Lab) told a meeting of Leeds City Council’s resources scrutiny board: “Working through Covid, we still have people self-disconnecting, and who are struggling to survive.

Council denies energy scheme it backed was a 'white elephant'

“I had a woman come to me last week, she was 58, had come out of a refuge and was put into a housing association property with storage heaters. Within a week she called out the doctors because she couldn’t cope with the cold – the storage heaters had run out of heat at 8pm at night.

“The properties weren’t properly insulated. It is wrong in this world. We should have a right to fuel campaign. Everyone should have the right to fuel and the right to not self-disconnect.

“At the moment we rely on fuel vouchers, as well as vouchers for food, from places like the green doctor, to help people survive. The big six have failed, privatisation of fuel has failed, we need a nationalised fuel provision to tackle the big six and give people that right.

“There is a campaign from the national housing federation to look at fuel poverty. We should link in with that as a result of today’s discussion.”

A council report stated that, following losses in 2018/19, Robin Hood Energy was sold by Nottingham City Council in 2020, meaning the end for the White Rose company.

Responding to Coun Jenkins, Leeds City Council office George Munson said: “The case you highlighted is something we are aware of across the city. It’s a difficult situation where people find themselves in unsuitable housing.

“It’s an ongoing dilemma. We have two competing priorities – one is fuel poverty. If we focussed on that, it would be about getting fuel as cheap as we possibly can.

“Then we have the climate change agenda, which says ‘we don’t want energy to be that cheap because we want to invest in ways to reduce energy use.

“The best approach we can take is focussing on decreasing the need for energy in the first place with things like improved insulation.”

Coun Matt Robinson (Con) said: “I am slightly worried that this was a flawed business model from the start.

“(The report) says how competitive the market is – I worry that there was naivety going in, that some people didn’t think it would be fiercely competitive and that the big six would be happy for people to muscle into the market.”

A report into the collapse of the company said: “Although there were many benefits to running White Rose Energy, there were some disadvantages that we hadn’t anticipated and a number of lessons learnt during project delivery.

“The energy market is fiercely competitive, very complex and highly regulated and requires a very experienced management team and a heavy financial investment in excellent systems and the ability to forward buy energy extremely well in order to compete.”