Taxpayers fork out for Jeremy Corbyn’s cheap home energy deal

Michaelw · 19 March 2019 at 1:05AM

Jeremy Corbyn enjoys a cut-price energy deal in his north London home from a company funded by millions of pounds of taxpayer cash.
The Labour leader is on a tariff offered by the supplier Robin Hood Energy, a company run by Nottingham city council which offers deals that are about £200 a year cheaper than those from the Big Six firms. But the company is able to offer these cheap deals only after being funded by £25.5m of loans from the council since it launched in 2015. This includes £5.5m as recently as December.
Despite the taxpayers’ cash, it has been haemorrhaging money, with losses of £2.5m in 2016 and £7.2m in 2017.
Nottingham residents pay among the highest council tax bills in the UK. They rose by 5.99% last year and the council announced a further increase of 2.99% in April, the maximum allowed. Residents have also had to endure £23m of cuts, including bus services.
It is not the only council affected. Taxpayers across the UK are paying millions of pounds to prop up loss-making community energy schemes by local authorities.
Bristol, Portsmouth and the Scottish government, as well as Nottingham, have together spent more than £66m of taxpayers’ funds over five years to run their suppliers.
Council-backed energy schemes were intended to provide an alternative to the large suppliers and help to alleviate fuel poverty. In its 2017 manifesto, Labour pledged to “support the creation of publicly owned, locally accountable energy companies”.
Asked if taxpayers should be funding cheap energy deals across Britain, Andrew Rule, leader of the Nottingham city Conservative group, said: “I don’t think it’s right. It goes against the principle under which Robin Hood Energy was launched, which was to alleviate fuel poverty in Nottingham. Instead, it is providing cheap energy deals for the likes of Mr Corbyn’s metropolitan elite while we’re footing the bill with year-on-year maximum increases in council tax.”
John O’Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Robin Hood was supposed to take from the rich and give to the poor, but the heavy hand of the state just means higher bills for those on the lowest incomes. These council-owned firms could end up hitting families with even higher council tax bills.”
Robin Hood, which became Britain’s first publicly run energy company since 1948 when it was launched in 2015, confirmed that the Labour leader was one of its 130,000 customers.
The company supplies energy across the country under agreements with other councils, including the north London borough of Islington where the Labour leader lives.
Gail Scholes, chief executive of Robin Hood Energy, said it was normal for businesses to lose money in the start-up phase.
It was able to report a profit of £202,000 last year after swapping a £7.5m loan from the council for shares in the company although it failed to declare this transaction to Companies House before the legal deadline. The company said its late filing of the loan-to-share conversion was “an administrative oversight that has since been dealt with”.
Scholes said: “Robin Hood Energy is one of the only energy companies to report a profit in the first five years of trading. Some energy companies have been trading for longer than this and still haven’t reached a break-even or profit point.”
The Labour Party did not comment.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/taxpayers-fork-out-for-jeremy-corbyns-cheap-home-energy-deal-cg7v5zzml

https://www.energylivenews.com/2019/03/18/are-council-owned-energy-firms-burning-a-hole-in-the-taxpayers-pocket/

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/council-energy-firms-burn-through-millions-of-pounds-rcxphq8hw

Theres this also from January.

Robin Hood Energy applies for overdraft as city council pledges to cover latest debt

The Labour-run council have provided a guarantee for the company's overdraft

The energy company owned by Nottingham City Council has been given further financial reassurances by the authority.

The Labour-run council has extended financial commitments already in place, which mean it will honour any debts Robin Hood Energy (RHE) should be unable to pay.

https://www.nottinghampost.com/news/nottingham-news/robin-hood-energy-extends-overdraft-2451324

brewerdave · 19 March 2019 at 10:21AM

Whether you like Jezza or not, he is perfectly entitled to do what us MSErs do, and switch to a cheaper deal!!

Robin9 · 19 March 2019 at 10:42AM

I don't fault Jeremy for doing the MSE'ing thing.

Its Nottingham Council who should have restricted the scheme to their ratepayers.

PennineAcute · 19 March 2019 at 10:43AM

So only poor people are allowed to save money. Dictatorship here we come.

Cardew · 19 March 2019 at 10:46AM

Robib Hood energy have taken responsibility - as a partner -for Ebico; a company that generally caters for customers with low energy consumption.

https://ebico.org.uk/ebico-news/faq/how-green-is-equipower/

bxboards · 19 March 2019 at 11:03AM

Not sure what the source of this information is, but why / how do the reporters seem to have access to Mr Corbyn's utility bills? Data breach here surely?

If I was a local tax payer there, I'd be unhappy if my council tax was bailing out a utility company, but that should be separated from who Jeremy Corbyn gets his gas and electric from - it's his business, and a non-story.

bonus2010 · 19 March 2019 at 12:31PM

As with so many news articles, a well-known name is being attached to it so as to grab attention for the newspaper.

I was with the failed energy supplier, Our Power Energy which too had received £millions from the Scottish government, yet their cheaper tariffs were available to anyone living in London.

Personally, I’m against energy suppliers being subsidised by public funds because as has been seen recently, a near average of one suppler has collapsed every month and that’s evidence that lending to such small firms is a poor use of public funds.

Cardew · 19 March 2019 at 12:40PM

I suspect the reason Mr Corbyn uses Robin Hood/Ebico is both are non-profit making companies, which would be compatible with his socialist principles.

In fact Mr Corbyn appears to live in a 'normal' house and it is well known with MSE participants that Robin Hood/Ebico are expensive for households with average consumption and there are far cheaper deals available.

So far from getting 'subsidised' gas and electricity, he is probably paying more than necessary to support a non-profit company.

If the above makes me look like a Corbyn supporter, I very much aint!!

wakeupalarm · 19 March 2019 at 1:23PM

bxboards wrote: »

Not sure what the source of this information is, but why / how do the reporters seem to have access to Mr Corbyn's utility bills? Data breach here surely?

If I was a local tax payer there, I'd be unhappy if my council tax was bailing out a utility company, but that should be separated from who Jeremy Corbyn gets his gas and electric from - it's his business, and a non-story.

I assume the reporters have access to Mr C utility bills because he may be claiming for them like most MP's as parliamentary expenses/allowances/whatever.

So its' probably UK tax payers who are paying for his Utility bills and the reporters should be outraged UK tax payers are screwing over Nottingham council tax payers.

Sterlingtimes · 19 March 2019 at 3:10PM

Presumably, someone who knows Mr Corbyn's address has accessed the following site:

https://www.findmysupplier.energy/webapp/index.html

I would have thought that the old socialist would use the CO-Op until he has the power to nationalise the whole industry.

t0rt0ise · 19 March 2019 at 3:39PM

The company with Islington Council that uses Robin Hood is called Angelic Energy. I joined them not long ago. I presume that's the company they are talking about. I like that it is non profit and has no shareholders but it isn't really, really cheap.

Taxpayers fork out for Jeremy Corbyn’s cheap home energy deal

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