THE Council’s backing of an energy company said to offer a ‘fairer deal’ to those on low incomes is to go under extra scrutiny.

Earlier this month, Bradford Council’s decision-making Executive opted to endorse and promote White Rose Energy, a not-for-profit company designed to offer people in Yorkshire an alternative to the ‘big six’ energy firms.

The scheme is spearheaded by Leeds City Council and available to anyone in Yorkshire, but in particular aims to offer better deals to those stuck on expensive pre-payment meters.

Under the endorsement deal, Bradford Council would get paid a fee of either £7.50 or £15 every time someone in the district signed up, which it would then spend on further fuel poverty alleviation work.

But the opposition Conservatives have called in the decision for examination at a cross-party scrutiny committee, questioning many of the benefits the scheme claims.

Councillor Debbie Davies (Con, Baildon) said the deal had “set a few alarm bells ringing”.

She said the energy firm wouldn’t always be the best deal for each customer.

She said: “People could be misled by ‘not-for-profit’, thinking it is automatically cheaper for them when it isn’t necessarily.”

Cllr Davies said White Rose Energy did not offer the Government’s Warm Homes Discount, which gives pensioners on low incomes £140 off fuel bills.

She said: “They could be the people the Council are targeting, saying they are vulnerable users, but they could actually be worse off.”

And she questioned whether it was something Bradford Council’s staff should be working on promoting as, regardless of whether the authority endorsed the company, people in Bradford could still use it.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Labour’s executive member for the environment, said rising bills were making things hard for local people and White Rose Energy had “the simple aim of offering people a fairer energy deal”.

She said: “I actually find it quite depressing that the Conservatives would want to put a stop to that and would rather support the big energy firms than hard-pressed local people. It’s simply an offer which people are free to compare against other providers.”

A spokesman for the Labour leadership said only energy companies with more than 250,000 customers had to offer the Warm Homes Discount, which White Rose does not currently have, but that White Rose would advise potential customers who could benefit from the discount that they may want to shop around elsewhere.

MORE TOP STORIES