Warrington Borough Council’s Energy Company About To Go Bust
By Paul Homewood
Another energy company is on the brink:
Together Energy could be the first casualty in the energy industry of 2022, Sky News reports.
It would affect 170,000 customers, leaving households facing price hikes.
The firm, which is 50%-owned by Warrington Borough Council, is said to be looking for emergency funding.
A spokesperson said the company was "in active conversations" about a cash injection.
Together Energy was understood to be looking for funding options back in November.
Sources have now said the chances of it securing funding are "remote".
The Sun has contacted Together Energy for comment.
Warrington Council said it was unable to comment.
Warrington Borough Council ploughed £18illion into the company in September 2019 to "address the climate emergency, tackle fuel poverty and create new job opportunities for local people".
Last year, the council predicted the firm would have 850,000 customer accounts within three years.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/money/17226312/together-energy-is-facing-collapse-within-weeks/
The business has been on the verge of bankruptcy since before last year’s problems.
Together lost over £15 million in the two years to October 2020, and had a negative book value of £22.7m at that year end:
Worse still, these accounts include intangible assets of £12.6m. Most of this relates to the purchase of Bristol Energy for £14m in September 2020. As such, this is investment is likely to be worthless now.
Together is jointly owned by Warrington Borough Council and Paul Richards, but called up share capital is only £2000, meaning the latter has little to lose. Warrington Borough however have £17.2m of preference shares at stake (shown as long term creditors), which is highly likely to be written off completely if the company folds.
What we do know is that OFGEM have already commenced action against Together for failure to discharge its obligations to to submit ROCs. This is often the first warning sign, and means that the company has been unable to buy sufficient ROCs under the scheme.
https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/together-energy-retail-limited-provisional-order
The company’s only chance is a government bailout, but in my view this would be out of order because the company has never been viable.
As the Sun notes, Warrington Borough ploughed this money in “to address the climate emergency”. I’m sure its council tax payers will be delighted!
Green Energy
Together Energy boast that all of their electricity comes from wind, solar and hydro:
https://togetherenergy.co.uk/green-energy
This is all very puzzling, because the Professor Grubbs and the rest of the renewable lobby keep telling us that renewable energy is much cheaper than nasty fossil fuels.
Surely then they should be immune from the rising price of gas, which has been pushing up costs for other electricity suppliers?
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NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
So many! A warning though: in the event of electricity companies collapsing, Ofgen will transfer accounts so we won’t lose supply, but will do so at inflated cost. So if you have a hint of a problem, best to do the transfer yourself.
I’m not sure that is possible these days. Last time I looked you could get very few quotes and those were priced to not encourage you to swap.
A near neighbour tried that as having no mains gas he has an old Economy 7 tariff. I would not have believed the quote he claimed he got from EDF if he had not printed it to show me…..day units at over 40p!
Governments, Local Councils & the Left claim that they care about fuel poverty. Unfortunately their Green Agenda will mean that in the future this period of rising prices will be viewed as cheap energy.
Paul’s point above is priceless.
If all these ridiculous mickey mouse energy suppliers are getting all their supplies from wind mills solar panels wood and food burning sources, then why are their prices going up?
I have been told its the price of gas and oil which is going up.
Has the cost of wind been going up too?
It’s starting to unravel and the taxpayer’s neck is on the block. If government wants to maintain any credibility (ha!) the first thing it needs to do is demand, by urgent legislation if necessary, that where applicable (Warrington is a case in point) LAs must use their reserves to mitigate the damage.
The second thing — which probably will only happen when a squadron of Gloucester Old Spots lands in Parliament Square — is to put an end to any real, imagined or other block, ban or embargo on oil, gas and coal working in the UK.
The UK has enough of all three to be self-sufficient in energy for a century or more and for the next half-century, probably, to be a net exporter. The sooner those in office rid themselves of the twin ideas that CO2 is a driver of climate change and that a couple of degrees C means the end of civilisation as we know it the sooner we have a slim chance of returning to energy sanity.
But, hey! I’m preaching to the converted here!
Someone in Warrington must surely be liable for the gross incompetence in buying Bristol Energy? If not they should sue Bristol for a fraudulent deal.
It seems that the Green energy farce is gradually being recognised by our totally incompetent media and parliament.
Can’t blame them, they were enticed in to the deal by the offer of a free statue.
Follow the money. Maybe more than a few palms we greased in this dubious transaction.
“I’m sure its council tax payers will be delighted!”
They may well be!
The Council should be held responsible based on the three objectives they stated – asked to validate their objectives against outcomes and by how much they missed them. For instance: did they demonstrably increase local employment such that the investment was justified (it could have been cheaper to pay workers out out Council funds).
Local Councils should be banned by law from getting into business like this. And Councillor personal finances should be checked…
Demonstrating, once again, the reason why local government officials should never be allowed anywhere near a commercial decision. Because they have no personal liability if things go wrong there is no need for them to carry out the usual checks before wasting (“investing”) taxpayers’ funds. A classic example of ‘Authority without responsibility’.
Another woke disaster to burden those in poverty.
Don’t blame me. I vote Libertarian and support nuclear science.
If only there were a Libertarian candidate in my area.
Most likely still won’t bring any change until there is an intelligence test before being allowed to vote.
“address the climate emergency, tackle fuel poverty and create new job opportunities for local people”.
It is not the job of local councils to do any of these things. They don’t have the money, the expertise nor the levers of power to do anything about them either – does anybody really think a bunch of mediocraties in a local council can do anything about the global climate? Councillors should be held legally responsible for their use of public funds. Didn’t Thatcher try and do that?
It’s interesting to look at Companies House details of Together Energy and the people running it. Professor Seven Broomhead (MBE), for example, its Chief Executive and CEO of Warrington Borough Council. He has his fingers in mant pies. I bet he has made a Bob or two! “From 2003 to 2011, Professor Broomhead was Chief Executive of the North West Development Agency with a budget of £1 billion per year and was responsible for the economic development and regeneration of the North West”.
See https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/SC533489/officers
Remember the outrage when German and Japanese civilians who deified Hitler socialism and Hirohito imperialism suddenly felt wronged by retaliatory bombings? Idiots who deify energy fraudsters will get no sympathy from me when their outvoted neighbors hunt them down for reprisals.
What on earth is a Labour controlled councils doing, risking taxpayers money fiddling about with part ownership of an energy company. Why should other taxpayers bail them out? Councillors who did this should be personally liable for their idiocy.
At least Bristol’s council-tax payers can be grateful that Warrington’s council-tax payers have helped bail them out.
Assuming the Bristol Energy “intangible asset” is worthless then the liabilities appear to be 35.4 million in the red.
Good luck with that Warrington Council and rate payers. At least you have “addressed the climate emergency, tackled fuel poverty and created new job opportunities for local people”.
Or not. Total f*ucking idiots. These councilors are so stupid they shouldn’t even be in charge of themselves. Along with the moronic idiots who elected them. Whatever happened to due diligence and financial oversight? What on earth does a council think its doing running an energy company and trying to address a “climate emergency”?
Until the passing of the Local Government Act 2000, councils did not have the power to get involved in these schemes, being outside their competencies. Had they done so the doctrine of ultra viries would have resulted in any losses being surcharged on the responsible members. This was an excellent way of stopping the more deluded ideas of local councillors before they could do any damage. Time to revert to the position applying before 2000.
Amazing what damage the pen can cause. This is as horrific as the governments current attempts to alter the “Green Book” requirement for cost benefit analysis of major National projects in favour of accepting so-called “environmental benefit”, which, conveniently, cannot be quantified in a meaningful way.
Shhh…don’t tell them…
Green myth-busting A third of customers believe that if an energy tariff is marked ‘green’ or ‘renewable’ then they expect to get 100% renewable electricity supplied to their home. Another 11% expect that the supplier generates some of the renewable electricity it sells, and 8% expect that it generates all of it.
But it’s not technically possible for renewable power to be directed to your home unless you have a direct line to a generator (solar panels on your roof, for example).
Read more: https://www.which.co.uk/news/2019/09/how-green-is-your-energy-tariff/ – Which?
In the world of climate hysteria you obviously can fool a lot of people a lot of the time
A neighbor put up a power company sign in his yard saying he was using green electricity. You could pay the power company extra to get your electricity green.
Gamecock asked him, “Did the electric company run new service to your house?”
“No.”
“So you are getting your electricity from the same substation I am?”
“Uhhh.”
Sign was gone the next day.
+1
Oldbrew – that’s a very interesting article from Which? The following quote is also telling:
“Good Energy sets up contracts with small generators (eg farmers with fields of solar panels) who might otherwise struggle to get a good price for their power. Plus its high-tech forecasting ensures it knows exactly how much power its generators are feeding into the grid so it can buy enough to meet customers’ use.
“But tariffs from these suppliers can be among the most expensive. Energy regulator Ofgem recognised this when it gave both firms, plus Green Energy UK, an exemption from the price cap on standard tariffs. It found that their higher prices are directly due to the support they give to generating renewable electricity.
But…but…renewable energy is cheaper isn’t it?
A good spot, TS.
Touché . . . !
I’m not surprised that this situation has arisen.
In my personal and professional experience over several decades, there are no public sector organisations that can be described as competent at an organisational level. Public sector organisations do employ some competent people, but they also employ many incompetent people who very rarely get sacked.
Only “very rarely”? 🤣 🤣
I waslistening to some expert or politician talking about the high cost of energy and what the government can do to mitigate the problems. He mentioned a windfall tax on energy suppliers “who are making huge profits from the price hike”. I did wonder which companies he was talking about, not the 20+ that have gone bust or the rest reluctant to take on more customers at the current capped charge rates. Not Gazprom, the Emirates Gas LLC or any American companies judgingon Facebook and Amazon.
I still can’t work out why removing VAT is considered a bad option, if you’re wealthy enough then % VAT on energy isn’t a major issue, similar to if you have to ask the price of something you can’t afford it, in this case it is something vital to staying alive and well
The business has been on the verge of bankruptcy since before last year’s problems.
So it wasn’t the runaway gas price that brought them down. As stated, in theory at least they don’t buy any.
https://togetherenergy.co.uk/green-energy
All the other so-called green energy suppliers that recently collapsed were presumably having similar problems to Warrington, whatever they were (too small to be efficient?).
Did the wind and solar power suppliers also see an opportunity to bump up their prices?
To answer my own question, they’re a ‘gas and electricity’ supplier.
https://energysuppliers.energylinx.co.uk/together-energy/
So it was the high gas price that blew them out of the water.