A long-standing member of South Holland District Council has received a stinging rebuke from the leader for “slagging off” the firm which operates the energy switching scheme which the council recommends and uses.
In a report to fellow members of Sutton Bridge Parish Council, Coun Chris Brewis incorrectly stated that iChoosr is linked to uSwitch – a price comparison website which has been accused of “hiding” tariffs for which it would receive no commission.
Coun Brewis, a district council member for Sutton Bridge, added: “I urge members of the public to have absolutely nothing to do whatsoever with the South Holland scheme and I am pleased that I, at least, decided to ignore the pleas to distribute leaflets, which would have deliberately misled the residents of my ward.”
The Ready To Switch scheme which iChoosr runs for the council enables residents to sign up for a free, no-obligation quote on switching energy providers. Firms quote in an auction based upon the prospect of a specified number of customers switching to them.
District council leader Gary Porter, who was instrumental in setting up the ongoing link-up between the local authority and iChoosr, suggested that the author of the “inaccurate” comments could be in hot water.
He declined to name Coun Brewis in last Wednesday’s full council meeting, but said of “the newsletter”: “It contains a number of factual errors, including quoting me twice incorrectly and, more importantly, criticising the scheme as being one of those ones criticised by The Sun newspaper and the Secretary of State.
“The scheme we use is iChoosr, they are a Dutch company and they are not connected to any of the comparison sites which were mentioned in The Sun article.
“iChoosr is a bidding process recommended by three government departments and has delivered large savings to consumers around the country and, thankfully, a considerable number of those are in South Holland.
“It is disappointing when a member chooses to put something out which is factually so inaccurate.
“I’m quite happy to leave it as an apology from the member at some point, that’s as far as I’ll take it.
“I’m not convinced that’s where iChoosr will take it because it does impact on their business. I will ask the chief executive of iChoosr to accept an apology if it’s offered, but I’m not going to guarantee that they don’t choose to do something else about it.”
Coun Porter went on to underline that iChoosr uses the whole energy firm market and all six of the big companies submitted prices for the last auction.
He added: “So if you hear anybody saying, according to this councillor, it’s a rubbish, stitched-up scheme, it’s not and this councillor should get his facts right before putting things in print.
“I’m pretty easy going and won’t kick off too much about it but I can’t guarantee that the company which has been slagged off will treat this the same way.”
Speaking after the meeting, Coun Brewis insisted that he has nothing to apologise for at this stage.
He said he based his comments to parish council colleagues after seeing The Sun article and unsuccessfully trying to quiz iChoosr about the scheme.
“As far as I’m aware there has been no retraction in The Sun,” he said. “All I have is a statement in the chamber. If Mr Porter wants to get The Sun to publish a retraction, then I will be happy to issue an apology.”
iChoosr has just completed the seventh auction for the council’s Ready To Switch scheme.
