An investigation from the Lambeth Homeowners Association community – A fellow service charge paying Lambeth resident is looking into how we are being charged for estate lighting and whether we are being ripped off. Here is his update:
“For those of you who have Estate Street Lighting on your service charge bills and wondered how it is apportioned, I have just submitted the Freedom of Information request below. It is useful to know that Estate Street Lighting is split between two unmetered electricity supplies whose consumption is ‘deemed’*. (*Deemed contracts are energy contracts that are automatically placed on users if they have not agreed on a new contract. These are generally more expensive than fixed contracts.)
It is also worth noting that when the public street lighting was switched to LED lamps the consumption fell drastically whereas there was little change to estate street lighting**. (**Estate lights were updated to LED, but the reduction in consumption doesn’t seem to be reflected in bills).
This is my FOI request:
1) Please list the estates which are supplied by this Lambeth UMS electricity supply for their street lighting: MPAN 1200060854137
2) Please list the estates which are supplied by this Lambeth UMS electricity supply for their street lighting: MPAN 1200060854155
3) What was the deemed annual consumption, actual number of kWh charged and actual amount of money charged to the council in each of the years 2019-2024 for each of the above two electricity supplies? Please supply the answer in spreadsheet format e.g. as an .xlsx file.
4) Under what formula is the cost of these supplies distributed amongst, and charged to, the various Lambeth estates?
You can follow the progress of this investigation here.
And thank you to Peter for his initiative!