News / bristol energy
Bristol Energy sold for £14m
Bristol taxpayers have been left tens of millions of pounds out of pocket following the sale of the city council’s loss-making energy company.
Following a nationwide search to find a buyer for the beleaguered firm, Together Energy has acquired Bristol Energy’s residential customer base for £14m.
Warrington Borough Council is a 50 per cent shareholder of Together Energy, with the Labour-run council’s deputy leader saying that its acquisition of Bristol Energy is “good news” for the Cheshire town.
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Bristol City Council invested £36.5m in Bristol Energy, which was set up in 2015, but the firm posted losses in excess of £30m.
The sale comes after city council accounts revealed that Bristol Energy’s former managing director, Marek Majewicz, was paid a £228,081 salary last year and a £94,879 payout when he left. Bristol mayor Marvin Rees earns £79,468 a year.
Bristol Energy was launched by the city council in 2015, with Marvin Rees inheriting the council-owned company when he became mayor – photo: Bristol Energy
Together Energy has acquired Bristol Energy’s residential customer base, with the business customer base sold in August for £1.34m to Nottingham-based Yu Energy.
It means that the city council has now recouped only £15.3m – a loss of £21.2m for a business that had already posted total official losses of £32.5m in the last five years. The final amount of exactly how much City Hall cash will never be recovered is not yet clear.
Together Energy committed to guaranteeing the jobs of 110 Bristol Energy workers who will remain in Bristol.
A further 50 Bristol Energy staff will also move over to Together Energy but a consultation regarding their future employment will start as soon as the consumer deal is complete.
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Read more: Bristol Energy: a timeline
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Bristol deputy mayor, Craig Cheney, said that it was “really important that we find a buyer who will not only offer a good deal for Bristol but also shares similar values”.
He said: “We are therefore delighted that Bristol Energy has been acquired by Together Energy which has proved committed to do the very best for its staff, customers and the environment.”
Bristol Energy carried out a number of publicity stunts in a doomed attempt to drum up more customers – photo: Bristol Energy
Bristol’s Conservative leader, Mark Weston, said: “Local taxpayers will be glad to see the curtain finally fall on this misadventure.”
He added: “No amount of inevitable political spin around this deal can hide the true scale of this financial failure.
“For example, any return on the sale of this company is absolutely dwarfed by the losses ledger. This has previously been put at nearly £40m, with millions more of taxpayers’ money falling due under a renewables obligation and, on top of this, the still unquantified costs of winding-up the business.
“In the final reckoning, the Labour mayor will have been shown to have cost this city dearly.”
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read more: Criticism of how Bristol Energy sale has been handled
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