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Islington residents who switch their energy provider to a new council-run energy partnership are set to save around £200 per year, after Islington Council announced plans to take on the ‘Big Six’ energy companies.

The council is set to work with a non-Big Six energy provider to offer affordable gas and electricity deals to local residents, which will help to tackle fuel poverty and give residents a fairer deal. 

The new ‘Islington Energy’ scheme will particularly help residents that use pre-payment meters by switching them to cheaper tariffs and by installing smart meters that allow for better monitoring of energy usage and cheaper ways to top-up.

It is thought that around 1 in 5 households in Islington use pre-payment meters, with surveys suggesting as many as half of all residents on housing estates using them. 

Announcing the new scheme – the first of its kind in London – Islington Council’s Executive Member for Environment & Transport, Cllr Claudia Webbe, commented:

“Fuel bills are a major part of the rise in the cost of living that so many Islington residents have had to deal with in recent years, and that’s why we are taking radical action to save residents money.

“We’ve been working since September 2014 on this deal, the first of its kind in London. This partnership will particularly benefit residents that are struggling because of the extra costs involved in using pre-payment meters.

“By moving more residents to the new partnership, we will help give them better control of how they use energy and make it cheaper and easier for them to top-up when they need to.”

The average pre-payment household in Islington paid over £170 more for their energy bills than someone paying via Direct Debit – in some cases, pre-payment customers paid as much as £432 more than the cheapest Direct Debit tariff. 

Proposals to establish the energy partnership will be debated at the council’s Executive Meeting on Thursday 10th March. 

 

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