Blog Post
Bristol City Council calls time on Bristol Energy
Matt Olney • May 06, 2020
Bristol energy is to be sold after the local authority that spent tens of millions of pounds to try and build up a nationwide energy supplier admitted defeat and put it up for sale.
Should Local Authorities enter the energy market?
Bristol City Council launched Bristol Energy back in 2011 to challenge the ‘Big Six’ suppliers
and source green energy from local wind and solar farms.
However, the company has made significant losses and turned into something of a money pit for taxpayers.
According to Sky News, the sale of the company is only likely to recoup a fraction of the £35 million invested into it by the council.
Bristol Energy was set up in 2015 under then mayor George Ferguson to provide ethically sourced, low-cost energy and with the aim of returning a profit for council taxpayers.
The company has posted total losses so far of £29.7million, including £10.1million in 2018/19, its third year of trading.
Covid-19 Pandemic forced their hand
The sale of Bristol energy and the amount of taxpayer money poured into it has created anger in the local community and opposition councillors are now demanding a full inquiry into Bristol Energy.
The council believed that the company would start to make a profit in 2019, but the latest projections suggest that it would not even start to break even until 2023/24 at the earliest.
With £37.7 million of taxpayer money being put into the company, people are demanding some answers.
“The mayor has broken his word on this, and we need a full inquiry into what happened, including the decision-making and the information that was given out. There has been a misdescription of the money, which has been put down as an ‘investment’ which it clearly isn’t. We knew this was inevitable.
'They were pumping money in, so they didn’t have to face up to the crystallisation of the debt. They were coming up with comments like ‘it will turn around’ but frankly they had given up on that some while ago. The mayor had been timing things to et past the local elections before announcing it had collapsed. That became impossible because they were cancelled. He is now trying to deal with it under the cover of coronavirus,” City council Lib Dem group leader Gary Hopkins told the Bristol Post newspaper.
Political infighting
Opposition councillors branded Bristol Energy a “speculative venture” and claim that they have been “unreasonably constrained from expressing concerns” due to major decisions being taken “behind a legal clock of commercial confidentiality”.
The deputy mayor responsible for finance, governance and performance Craig Cheney accused the opposition members of playing politics immediately before what would have been the local elections campaign.
Further Reading
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