Schools that pay over market rate for their energy bills as a result of Liverpool Council ’s expensive blunder could get money back as one headteacher admitted his school was “snookered” by rising energy costs.
Earlier this year, a catalogue of errors at the Cunard Building led to £16m being added to the Liverpool Council’s energy bill. Council leaders were not informed that the electricity provider it was dealing with had withdrawn from the commercial market, leading to the local authority - and other city institutions including schools and the fire service - being placed on a far more expensive contract.
At a meeting of the Liverpool Schools Forum this afternoon, Lee Kinder, assistant director of asset management, said discussions were ongoing with Department for Education about rebates being made available to schools that “pay over market rate” for energy as a result of the council’s error. Mr Kinder was named in an independent report by Mazars as the individual responsible for not informing the council’s cabinet of Scottish Power’s (SP) decision to temporarily close its trade desks, which ultimately led to the move to a more expensive tariff.
