Only 3,600 households have signed up to Sadiq Khan’s energy company
Fewer than 4,000 London households have signed up to Sadiq Khan’s green energy company that he set up this year for £3.2m.
City Hall figures shows that London Power has just 3,658 customers, meaning City Hall has spent £875 per customer.
London Power, which is run by Octopus Energy, was set up by City Hall in a bid to save consumers money on their energy bills.
Khan claimed at its launch that it would save the average household £300-a-year on bills.
The company’s website says that “all the electricity [used] will be matched with power generated from renewable sources like the sun and the wind”.
Conservative London Assembly member Tony Arbour called London Power “a tremendous waste of money”.
“London Power is merely a disguised taxpayer-funded marketing scheme for Octopus Power in London,” he said.
“It’s frankly disgraceful that Sadiq Khan is wasting millions of pounds on this PR stunt which will never deliver for Londoners.”
London Power entered a market that is already home to 64 active suppliers, according to Ofgem.
The energy market watchdog’s 2019 report on the energy market found 53 per cent of consumers had never switched energy companies.
However, the figure for London – where energy prices are among the most expensive in the country – is not known.
A spokesperson for the mayor said: “This is an unfounded attack on a green energy company bringing affordable energy to thousands of Londoners.
“The Mayor has committed to spending up to £3.2m London Power over a four year period so the simplistic maths used in this press release simply don’t add up after just the first nine months of operation. Furthermore, the customer numbers mentioned here are from 30 September, just two days after the London Power marketing campaign was reactivated having been paused during the pandemic.”