(L-R) Sharon Whitehill, Visitor Information Assistant at West Oxfordshire D.C's Town Centre Shop with David Harvey, Lead Member for Environment at West Oxfordshire D.C

A scheme set up by Cherwell and West Oxfordshire District Councils to encourage local residents to switch energy providers ‘to help people save money’ has so far seen 700 local residents and 37,000 UK-based residents sign up, the Oxford Waste Partnership (OWP) has announced.

According to the ‘Better Together Oxfordshire’ website, over 37,000 participants across the nation have currently registered with the scheme, with OWP claiming that over 700 households in Oxfordshire have signed up. Furthermore, it states that around 1,000 households nationally are registering for the scheme every day.

‘Better Together’ is a national strategy that allows householders wishing to pay lower energy bills to group together. An auction is then held, where the energy company offering the cheapest tariff wins the right to offer the group new contracts. Once the auction is finished householders are informed of the winning bid and then have the option to switch to the cheapest offer or remain with their current energy provider.

Run by iChoosr, a company specialising in organising collective switching schemes, Better Together Oxfordshire follows the establishment of the Cheaper Energy Together community partnership (made up of 30 not-for-profit organisations including charities, local authorities and housing associations), which launched on 5 February, and comes as part of a national effort to protect people from “rocketing” fuel bills.

Registration for the Oxfordshire scheme opened on 13 February and will continue until 8 April. The auction will be held the following day, with details of the winning tariff being emailed out to participating householders on 17 April. Participants will have to decide whether or not to switch suppliers by 6 May.

Councils can “help people save money”

Councillor Nigel Morris, responsible for energy and climate change at Cherwell District Council, said: “Everyone’s talking about how much their energy bills are rocketing, and with no obligation to switch unless you are happy with the deal offered, there’s really no reason not to get involved. Register yourself, tell your neighbour or help sign up an elderly relative before 8th April”, he added.

Councillor David Harvey, portfolio holder for the environment at West Oxfordshire District Council, added: “It’s encouraging to see so many people already signed up to the scheme, but it’s still open to anyone to register. It’s a quick process and all people need is a copy of their gas and electricity bill so they can compare their prices.

“With fuel poverty becoming an increasing problem, it’s rewarding to know that our councils can come together to help people save money.”

According to the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), a household is classed as being in fuel poverty if it spends 10 per cent or more of its income on fuel. The DECC Annual Report on Fuel Poverty Statistic 2012 states that in 2010 the number of fuel poor households in the UK was estimated at 4.75 million.

Read more about Better Together Oxfordshire.