In Saturday’s Times (£), Ed Miliband talked about helping poorer households with their fuel bills. His “unprecedented scheme” where the party will mobilise communities to buy electricity at lower prices than individuals could manage.
The scheme will be run by iChoosr, which will negotiate on consumers’ behalf with big power companies. The more people who sign up, the harder the bargain they will be able to drive. It will be tried out in three areas, starting next month, with the aim of securing cheaper bills by the New Year. Volunteers will leaflet the pilot areas with an emphasis on reaching people who are not usually politically engaged.
Except it’s not so unprecedented. Liberal Democrat run South Lakeland Council is already doing just that as Lakeland Radio News reported on the same day.
South Lakeland Council has teamed up with a specialist company, iChoosr, to find the cheapest deals on energy, and negotiate on behalf of local residents.
Now, each person who registered will be sent an offer with a price for their energy supply by email or by post.
Early indications show that people signed up to the scheme are estimated to make savings of £60 to £200 per year.
Cllr Clare Feeney-Johnson, Deputy Leader and portfolio holder for Environment and Sustainability, said: “This council led scheme was the first in the country and councils across the UK have all been following it with interest.
I am so pleased that the residents of South Lakeland have come together to power up their community and created mass buying power.
The other benefit to this scheme is that depending on the amount of people who accept the offer and switch, SLDC will receive a one-off payment, which will contribute directly to help community projects that improve energy efficiency for those most in need.
David Evans, the Lib Dem Finance Portfolio Holder on South Lakeland says:
Obviously, South Lakeland’s Lib Dems are very gratified that Ed Miliband has discovered, as his unprecedented scheme for connecting with disillusioned voters, a scheme that the Lib Dems in South Lakeland have already implemented. If he wants any further advice or guidance, I am sure we will be willing to give him a few more tips on what we have done over the last few years. Obviously, South Lakeland’s Lib Dems are very gratified that Ed Miliband has discovered, as his unprecedented scheme for connecting with disillusioned voters, a scheme that the Lib Dems in South Lakeland have already implemented. If he wants any further advice or guidance, I am sure we will be willing to give him a few more tips on what we have done over the last few years.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings. You can find her on Bluesky at caronmlindsay.bsky.social
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13 Comments
I’m sure that the quote at the end of the piece isn’t quite correct. We know the importance of repetition, but this is too much, too much.
Isn’t it remarkable how most of the Miliband initiatives involve setting up a new quango?
I don’t think Edd Milliband was claiming it as “his” idea, so the article is a bit unfair.
I do not believe this was a Liberal Democrats Idea either, so neither party can claim the credit.
The Idea comes from the company Ichoosr.
South Lakeland Council were obviously approached by the company and there is a financial incentive to the council for supporting it.
That is not to say it is not a good scheme, but Liberal Democrats can not claim credit for it, and I do not believe Edd Milliband was trying to.
I think the party really needs to concentrate on it’s “own” policies and selling it to the public, rather than this constant obsession with Labour and Milliband
Matt. He said it was unprecedented when it is in fact very well precedented. 38 degrees ran a massive nation wide scheme in association with ‘Which?’ magazine doing exactly this.
Asfor concentrating on Lib Dem policy, I believe the use of joint purchasing power to reduce energy prices was discussed at conference, and has certainly been discussed by local parties (and is being implemented and run by more than just one).
If Ed M lived in the real world he would know that poor families often have to use prepaid cards and actually pay the most. I guess he didnt see that in Hampstead.
Given that Ed was talking about this back in April (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/apr/20/ed-miliband-voters-cheap-electricity) and the Lakeland scheme was launched in August, it’s silly to claim that he’s pinching their ideas. Especially as it wasn’t Lakeland’s idea in the first place – they were sold the scheme by a company which had already operated similar schemes in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Ed is justified in using the word “unprecedented” because no other national party has done anything remotely similar.
Looks like our Ed got there first 😉
http://www.decc.gov.uk/en/content/cms/funding/collectpurch/collectpurch.aspx
Matt,
Part of the Times Article included “Mr Miliband, mocked for his big autumn idea of “predistribution” — the need to boost wages rather than redistributing wealth through the welfare state — will say that he has immediate answers to people’s problems without having to wait for power. He will use the promise of swift cuts to energy bills for thousands of families as a way of reconnecting with voters who are disillusioned with politics.”
Whether it is thought Ed Milliband claimed it as his idea or not is rather immaterial. What matters is that e Lib Dems in South Lakeland actually got out there and delivered real benefit to their community.
Labour can talk about policy as much as it likes. Lib Dems focus on delivering quality services.
Finally, one last thing. I can unequivocally say we identified and approached iChoosr and not the other way round.
Stuart,
I can see it was being studied by Ed M in April, but by that time Clare Feeney-Johnson was already acting.
Liberal Neil,
You’re right. It looks like Ed Davey was well ahead of Ed M on this too.
Very interesting. So why is it that LibDems were not able to capitalize on this at their recent conference, leaving Labour to claim the credit? EM ends by saying:
“Volunteers will leaflet the pilot areas with an emphasis on reaching people who are not usually politically engaged”.
This raises the further question of whether such a scheme would actually survive if the volunteers were instead paid a decent wage. It’s also obvious from the last part of the sentence that Labour are using this as a tool to increase their voter turnout. I wonder if they’ll turn away people who express a different political choice.
@David
But the fact is that Ed M was looking at this scheme many months ago, at around the same time that your council was starting to make plans. If you believe this scheme is good for communities, should you not be congratulating Ed M for getting involved instead of all this playground politics stuff?
Actually I don’t think this scheme is much to brag about anyway. You have around 46,000 households in South Lakeland, 13,000 of which are in “fuel poverty”, yet only 1,669 have registered on the scheme (which is now closed). That’s a 3.6% take-up. If past schemes are anything to go by, a large percentage of those applicants will not even take up the offer. This isn’t a scheme to provide cheaper energy to the people who really need it; it’s just cheap energy for a select few, who will most likely be the kind of deal-savvy punters who don’t need it anyway.
@ Stuart.
Indeed I do think that schemes like this are good for communities, and when driven forward by a local authorities led by councillors that care about the disadvantaged, can deliver extra benefit to those people. For example, in conjunction with this scheme in South Lakeland we are establishing a fund which will be used to target further help on those who are in real fuel poverty in our area.
I’m not sure why you think we need to congratulate Ed M for getting involved, because if you look at the original article, I said we were gratified at Ed M’s interest in an area we have already delivered on, and offered further advice to help him if he needed it. However, I’m sure you will excuse me for holding back on my praise for Ed M for thinking about this idea for so long, perhaps if he chooses to congratulate South Lakeland and Clare Feeney Johnson for actually going out and delivering it, I might change my mind.
I totally agree that playground politics is to be decried, but somehow, it seems there is an urge on the part of some people to decry what others in different arena have delivered for being too small, too fragmented and focussed on a group they seem not to approve of. This is particularly saddening when they provide no hard facts to back this up, but mainly innuendo. Suffice it to say we will be carefully reviewing the entire process to see how successful it has been in getting take up by the most disadvantaged and will be using this data to learn how to be even more successful in delivering services in the future for the benefit of our community. What we learn from this, we will of course make available to those who are trying to do similar things. One day, I hope, you will wish us well.
Schemes like this are good for the community – undoubtedly. However, I remain to be convinced that they are good for the very poorest of us. Why? Because it is too hard for those who have money taken out of their benefits and those who have prepay meters to change – especially when money is owed to the energy companies.
Thanks for the comment Bill. Our next phase will include looking at those on prepayment meters to see how we can better help them. It may be that a change of legislation or regulation is needed. Lobbying will then begin in earnest.
I’m not sure exactly what you are referring to when you say “it is too hard for those who have money taken out of their benefits.” There are so many things this could relate to, some within the power of a local authority, some again that need national change. If you could provide extra detail, that would be useful. – likewise your comment on people already in debt to the energy companies. To any liberal it is unacceptable if the system hinders or actually prevents people from taking some steps to get out of poverty.
There is no easy, single solution to such a wide ranging problem as fuel poverty. The key is for people in all areas to work together to make progress on all fronts.