Scottish couple's crowdfunding takes on Big Six energy firms

A Scottish couple fed up with the high prices charged by the Big Six energy firms have launched a crowdfunding site to set up a new publicly-owned energy company.

Karin Sode and David Pike, founders of Our Energy PICTURE: OurEnergy/PA Wire

Karin Sode and David Pike from Gullane, East Lothian, whose crowdfunding campaign, www.crowdfunder.co.uk/ourenergy, went live at midnight aim to raise over £450,000 and make Our Energy operational by late spring 2017.

It will give 75 per cent of its profits back to customers which could mean a windfall of around £60 per annum depending on market forces. It will start supplying 30,000 households and aim for a million homes.

Peter Lederer, OBE, former chair of five-star Gleneagles Hotel in Perthshire, will chair the company which will also have customers on its board of directors.

Our Energy is being backed by a number of senior business people including John Wright, former chief executive officer of the Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank.

Mr Pike, 52, the company’s director, who previously worked as a consultant for businesses including Scottish Power and EDF, said he decided to set up the company after becoming frustrated at only noticing he had been taken off his existing tariff and put on a higher one after examining his energy bill.

“I thought ‘that’s not right, why am I being conned?’ The trust in the market has disappeared. People just don’t trust the Big Six anymore.

“People in the UK have quite rightly lost trust in their energy suppliers. Why should we all pay higher prices just to line a shareholder’s pocket?

“We want to bring democracy and transparency to the UK’s energy market. Our customers will enjoy the profits and after three years will own the company. They will never have to switch supplier again, as they’ll own the company and have complete trust in its practices.”

Ms Sode said: “My motivational driver is doing something highly ethical. There are a lot of good business people but they are constrained by the business model and putting profit and shareholders first.

“We are crowdfunding because we don’t want private shareholders we need to answer to: our customers will be our shareholders.”