Pioneering co-operative to eliminate fuel poverty in Cornwall
A people-driven co-operative to end fuel poverty, improve health and cut energy bills across the board will be launched in Cornwall today by Government minister Ed Davey.
Cornwall Together is an umbrella organisation that aims to bulk-purchase electricity, gas and heating oil and share the savings with consumers. The initiative could deliver up to £3.7million worth of savings to Cornish households and businesses.
A partnership made up of Cornwall Council, Cornwall NHS, Unison, Eden and St Austell Brewery, Cornwall Together initially plans to buy fuel at low prices and pass on the discounts to its employees. The longer-term vision is to include a large number of organisations and individuals in the scheme and eventually roll it out beyond Cornwall.
Speaking ahead of today's launch at the Eden Project, Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, said: "Cornwall Together is breaking the mould in two ways. First, the extent of collaboration behind the scheme shows that it's not just the usual suspects that can play an active part in the energy market. And second I applaud the explicit aim of extending the benefits of collective switching to the most vulnerable householders."
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A long-time supporter of collective purchasing, Mr Davey added: "I want clubbing together to buy and save energy to become commonplace and I am excited to see schemes like this setting an example for others up and down the country."
Cornwall Council, Cornwall NHS, Eden and St Austell Brewery together employ almost 50,000 people. Every member of staff could see their fuel bills cut by between 10 per cent and 20 per cent.
Cornwall Together – which is working with Community Buying Unlimited, Rural Community Council and Community Energy Plus – will act as the sole bulk-buying contact for energy companies to negotiate with, switching suppliers whenever a better deal can be found. It is thought to be the first time an entire region has united as a community to buy energy.
The scheme was the brainchild of Eden energy manager Matt Hastings, who said: "The idea of the whole of Cornwall joining forces to negotiate as a single unit is revolutionary. This is an exciting opportunity to unite Cornwall and reduce energy bills for tens of thousands of people."
Mr Hastings, who was recently named UK Energy Manager of the Year, added: "Cornish households spend around £1.2bn on energy per year and we estimate potential savings of £3.7m could be made, most of which would likely be put back into the Cornish economy."
As part of the scheme's social purpose, it will invest 10 per cent of the revenue generated from each energy switch into a fund to address fuel poverty. Cornwall Together will then seek match-funding from other organisations.
Felicity Owen, director of public health for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, welcomed the initiative, stating: "What excites us about this is its community focus and the potential to reduce fuel poverty, which can lead to excess deaths in winter and contribute to other health conditions. We support it wholeheartedly."
Lucy Darch, director of energy at uSwitch.com, described the scheme as a "complete game changer" which had the potential of encouraging more people to change suppliers.
"Six in ten households have never switched and three quarters of people are sitting on old fashioned and expensive standard tariffs," she said.
"A group purchasing scheme targeted at these people and giving them the support and confidence they need to switch could be a huge boost to competition and the local economy."
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Comments
by JP2609
Wednesday, July 25 2012, 1:42PM
“A lot of people in fuel poverty in Cornwall are older people that don't have internet access. The group should perhaps promote their telephone number as well 0800 772 0925.”
by agaford
Wednesday, July 25 2012, 9:08AM
“I am really not sure how this will work.
Corwall NHS, Eden, Local authorities etc buy energy (lets use electricity as an example) through a broker and probably pay around 10p a unit where as their employees are going to be paying something in the region of 15p a unit - clearly if everyone gets together they may be able to get down to 9p and everyone wins.
However the NHS, Eden etc will be buying from companies such as corona, gazprom, shell (basically people producing energy and selling it whole sale) through their broker. They will be buying millions of units of energy and will be issued only 1 bill and there will be no requirements on the company selling the energy to read the meter at regular intervals etc.
As soon as you add in domestic customers and the requirements of fulfilling the legal requirements such as having meter read and bills sent regularly etc. Also domestic customers tend not to be as regular and as likely to pay there bill as say Cornwall NHS which would have a hard time defaulting on its obligations. Plus I cannot see the local authority in an area with such high fuel poverty wanting it residents to miss out on schemes such as the warm home discount (broader group) and priority services register benefits etc.
So two solutions
1) to apply for a light licence to supply electricity - I have spoken to both the local authority and to Cornwall NHS and they said that there were not considering this option as they deemed it too complicated.
2) to go to energy companies that will supply both domestic and non domestic. As we have seen from domestic schemes such as the 'Big Switch' market beating rates are not out their even with hundreds of thousands of people wanting to switch. But even if you could get a market beating rate it would probably be similar to the recent Scottish power price reduction where they beat EDF by £2 a year.
So thats domestic properties with £2 off their annual bill.
Non-domestic would need to go to one of the big 6 too and they would end up paying more than they would through a broker and be using a company that is not used to high energy multiple site businesses.
I also do not know of any payments paid for switching made in the bulk buying sector only in the retail sector for SME and domestic customers.
If there is another way around this please let me know because I really want this to work and would love to implement it myself.”
by homerjay
Monday, July 23 2012, 1:33PM
“oldjamaica
Monday, July 23 2012, 12:56PM
Click the link in my comment below, it takes 10 minutes, have your power bill handy.”
by homerjay
Monday, July 23 2012, 1:11PM
“http://tinyurl.com/btjnkj8”
by oldjamaica
Monday, July 23 2012, 12:56PM
“where do i sign up for this?”