Council-owned energy firm increases council bills

A council's energy bill will go up after its energy supplier - a company wholly owned by the council itself - increased its prices, it has emerged.

ThamesWey Energy supplies heat, cooling and electricity to multiple Woking Borough Council buildings on its district energy network.

The company, owned by the local authority, has reviewed its commercial tariffs, costing its owner £326,000, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Council documents show the authority cannot change suppliers as the cost of connecting its buildings to the wider grid is prohibitively expensive.

Council executive member Louise Morales told an executive meeting it wasn't "economical" to change the arrangement in the near future as new contracts with the supplier were approved.

ThamesWey reviewed tariffs "because the historic tariffs have not been updated for a significant period and no longer reflect current market benchmarks", she said.

"It is important that commercial arrangements between the council and companies that the council owns are transparent and that they are conducted on an arm's-length basis," she added.

"The council should neither receive preferential terms because it owns the supplier, nor pay charges that cannot be just against the market."

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