The Gazprom logo
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)London councils have given a Kremlin-owned gas firm nearly £2m in just over a year, the Standard can reveal.
Gazprom companies have supplied at least five London councils since January 1 last year, according to an analysis of available expenditure data published by all boroughs.
British companies have been rapidly cutting ties with the firm after the Russian invasion of Ukraine last week hailed the start of an increasingly bloody conflict.
Russian gas and oil is a key source of funding for Vladimir Putin’s regime which has been hammered with strict sanctions, causing the rouble to plummet.
The money spent with Gazprom companies, the Russian state gas company, could be even higher as many councils have not published up-to-date expenditure data.
Westminster Council spent at least £1,279,830 with Gazprom since January 1 last year, the highest amount of any council in the capital, including a payment for £322,000 on December 1.
Gazprom had a contract to supply gas to the council’s City West Homes, which manages Westminster’s 21,000 council and leaseholder homes.
The council told the Standard that the contract ended last year and that it was reviewing its other suppliers for links with Russia.
Cllr Paul Swaddle, Westminster City Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance, said: “Like much of the rest of the world we have looked on in horror as events have unfolded in Ukraine following Russia’s abhorrent and unprovoked attack on this sovereign nation.
“Soon after the start of the invasion, Westminster City Council began reviewing contracts to see what financial links we have with Russian-owned companies.
“A contract with Gazprom to supply our housing estate ended last year.”
Merton Council entered into an agreement for Gazprom to supply gas to 133 of its sites in 2013, including leisure centres.
Since January 1 last year, it has given Gazprom at least £530,365 - but now says it will cancel a planned new one-year contract which was due to go ahead in April over the atrocities in Ukraine.
Council leader Mark Allison said: “I have asked officers to urgently review options to bring this contract agreement to an end to show our unity and empathy with the people of Ukraine.
“Any small step we can take is a step that must be taken.
“The atrocities being carried out by Russia are horrific, and I know I speak for everyone associated with Merton Council and the borough when I say we stand steadfastly with the people of Ukraine.”
He added that he wrote to the Government on Wednesday asking for “urgent” changes to the laws around councils’ contracts, saying local authorities needed the ability to “refuse to do business with such firms based on their moral or social suitability, not just their commercial offer”.
Three other London councils had used Gazprom companies as a supplier since January 1 2021, although they spent much less Westminster or Merton councils.
Richmond-upon-Thames spent £13,632 for gas from Gazprom Energy, which it said related an inherited contract on one building which ended in March last year. A spokesperson said it was reviewing its exposure to Russian companies in the wake of “Russia’s unacceptable actions in Ukraine”.
Bexley Council spent at least £4,233 with Gazprom Marketing and Trading for “construction and conversion” costs, according to the publicly-available data, while Harrow Council’s Lateral Flow Testing department made a single payment to Gazprom Energy for gas in July last year, worth £1,498.
Public bodies using Gazprom as a supplier have come under increasing scrutiny after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last week.
Over 2,000 civilians have been killed in the war so far, Ukrainian officials have reported. The UN estimates a million refugees have fled the conflict.
According to the Health Service Journal, at least 11 NHS Trusts in the UK have paid the supplier more than £4m in the current financial year. None are in London.
Sir Simon Stevens, the former head of the NHS in England, said the health service’s use of Gazprom as a supplier meant it was effectively funding “dictatorial regimes … engaged in acts of aggression”.
