Big Community Switch aims to help cut your energy bill

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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on March 8, 2013 at 13:35

Thanks Kamila - I don't think they take much out of it, but they all do have businesses to run, so we're paying for their expertise building the website, direct mailing potential customers, their advertising budget and sales people, meeting times with council officials, the cost of protecting the name and address datacenters, salaries to the Chief Exec, the cost of their offices  etc et.

They could all claim that the 'profit' they make is minimal but we'll never know - it's all held in secret in the interests of 'commercial confidentiality'  - a fact of life.

The CoOp maybe made the decision to fund their entry into this market by undercutting the rest?  I don't know (doubt it) as CoOps are wonderful orgs in my opinion. Maybe they won because, as they're owned by all their members, they don't suffer from 'investors' driving them to quick returns at any cost, and don't pay the sort of salaries Barclays do.

Which and particularly 38 degrees still do overwhelmingly more good than they cost to run though, don't they?  

Permalink Reply by Alexander Smith on March 25, 2013 at 15:47

Dear Chris,

I think you must have got the wrong end of the stick regarding Hornsey Town Hall and the other buildings on the site developed at the same time.

The gas and electricity boards had offices and showrooms opposite one another flanking the Town Hall but they were not part of the Council. The proximity of these buildings to the old Town Hall does not mean that Hornsey Council acted as a utilities "supplier".

I don't remember the Water Board having premises there. 

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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on March 25, 2013 at 16:48

Thanks Alexander - I wish I knew of more sources of evidence. The Council paperwork would do it, but i guess that's all been destroyed. I wonder if there are any old bills anywhere around?

I assumed that, as the plaza was designed from scratch to incorporate Gas, Electricity and Telephone and, as Telephone was a goverment-owned and supplied service, and as it appeared that some Councils owned and operated their own Gas and Electicity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Electricity_Board) that Hornsey would too. Otherwise, why else would they build utility offices effectively inside the Town Hall?

I found this reference:

Hornsey Gas Company Limited (1857-1949): formed in 1857, became statutory in 1866, controlled by the South East Gas Corporation from 1939 and merged with the North Thames Gas Board in 1949.

I don't know if 'statutory' meant, but it can't mean 'subject to regulation' can it? It seems that the North Thames Gas Board was state-owned from 1949 and had absorbed some municapally owned ones.

As to water, I found this:

...'Out of the 198 water undertakings 64 were run by individual local government authorities, 101 by joint boards comprising several local government authorities, and 33 were statutory privately owned water companies, some of which date back to the Victorian era.' from here.

I'll correct it in future - really appreciate the heads-up. Don't want to accidentally mislead.

Thanks Alexander.

Chris

Permalink Reply by Kamila on March 25, 2013 at 17:42

This prompted me to do some research on the history of public utilities in Hornsey and I came across this

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=22526

It says that in 1900 Hornsey UD decided to supply electricity itself under the Hornsey Electrical Supply Board. 

I don't know whether Hornsey Gas Compay, which incorporated in 1857, was ever part of the council though.

I also came across Helen Long's fascinating book on The Edwardian House, published in 1993 which has some reference to the various gas and electrical suppliers.

I also know that the architect for the Town Hall (Uran) was also consultant for the the gas and electricity showrooms flanking either side of the square, and that the friezes was designed by Ayre.

All fascinating stuff!

Permalink Reply by Alexander Smith on March 26, 2013 at 1:09

Hi Chris,

I've read kamila's useful reply and stand corrected about Hornsey Borough having supplied electricity locally. This is quite humbling for someone who has lived locally for nearly half a century and whose family has lived in the area for over a hundred years! However, it seems that by the time the showroom was built (a little after the town hall in 1936 from what I gather on the web) they would have been operating under the auspices of the Central Electricity Board.

I don't believe they were, in any way, responsible for gas though as The Hornsey Gas Company's business address was at the gas works in Clarendon Rd. N8.

I also found that water was first supplied by the "New River Water Co." and then by "The Metropolitan Water Board" before Thames Water.

I'm sure the "Telephone" which you saw was simply there to indicate the public telephone booths once installed beneath it which are now long gone. 

Permalink Reply by Kamila on March 8, 2013 at 14:34

It will be interesting to see if this provider beats the Coop.  Just realised I cannot switch as I'm tied in till July.  But anyway, as Chris says, the Coop is a good organisation and so is Which.

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Permalink Reply by 3v44xgh0io8da on March 25, 2013 at 12:42

The Big Community Switch is an opportunity for people to find out if by switching their energy costs could be cheaper. For any questions about individual tariffs and penalties please contact the helpline 0800 953 1221.

 The Big Switch is also running Drop Ins at local libraries and workshops about energy use and sustainability. www.haringey.gov.uk/switch.

There is no obligation to switch and people are given information on reading their bills and how to find out about their current tariff. This is of great concern because of the number of tariffs around. The Big Switch is prompting people to talk about energy saving.

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Permalink Reply by Kamila on April 19, 2013 at 22:25

I did this and just got the result.  Sainsbury's won.  Their estimates were a whacking £250 MORE than my current provider, Cooperative Energy.  

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on April 19, 2013 at 23:27

Simillar for me.

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Permalink Reply by Kamila on April 20, 2013 at 9:03

Oh well - I guess it wasn't for us savvy switchers anyway!  But I thought they would do better than that.  Did you also get a crafty discount of over £200 to get you to switch?  I didn't like that tactic.  Switch to the Cooperative everyone - it really is the cheapest provider around.  I think Which did a good job with their collective switching scheme.

And we had a most interesting discussion about the Hornsey energy suppliers on this thread!

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Permalink Reply by Hugh on April 20, 2013 at 9:34

Yes, there was some sort of incentive, but I can't remember the amount. I just thought it a rather poor letter. Had I had the choice, in their position, I'd have drafted a different letter to people like us who weren't going to save anything. As it was, it came cross as a rather shabby offer.

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Permalink Reply by Abi on April 20, 2013 at 10:13

Yes, plus the emailed equivalent looked really unprofessional - I had to double-check the address, as even though I knew I had applied for this it looked like spam.

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