Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Growth and Investment presented a report on an initiative aimed at providing local residents with the opportunity to subscribe to competitive, cheaper fuel tariffs through a ‘white label’ partnership with a reputable energy supplier.

The Cabinet Member advised that although recent Government estimates suggested that 10% of Barking and Dagenham households suffered from fuel poverty, the Council’s own assessments found that in some areas of the Borough that percentage was as high as 38%.  The initiative would, therefore, enable local residents to take advantage of bespoke, locally branded energy tariffs that were expected to consistently be amongst the top 15% best offers in the energy market.  It was noted that an options appraisal had included the potential for the Council to establish itself as a fully licensed, independent energy company but that option was not considered appropriate at the present time. 

The Cabinet Member referred to the planned communications strategy that would support the launch of the initiative and help achieve the goal of attracting at least 3,000 customers in the first year of the service.

Cabinet Members welcomed the proposal and spoke on the need to break the hold that the largest energy suppliers continued to have in the market which penalised loyal customers, the obscenity of key meter charges which penalised those on the lowest incomes and the focus on helping those currently in arrears with their high tariff deals to move over to the more affordable ‘white label’ tariff.

The Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Approve the proposed ‘white label’ approach to deliver a branded energy supply to the residents of Barking and Dagenham, as detailed in Option 2 in the report; and

(ii)  Delegate authority to the Chief Operating Officer, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Economic and Social Development and the Director of Law and Governance, to develop and register the intellectual property rights in the trademarks and branding for the energy products to be delivered through the white label option and enter into the contracts and all other necessary or ancillary agreements with the successful bidder in accordance with the strategy set out in the report.