Brighton & Hove City Council Faced With Annual Utility Bills Of Over £10m

The council is grappling with eye-watering bills for gas, electricity and water, according to two reports to a cabinet meeting this week.

Brighton and Hove City Council’s energy bills alone come to £9.5 million a year while the water bill is almost £1.2 million a year and expected to rise.

Officials said that the current energy contract with Crown Commercial Services (CCS) saved the council £1.08 million in the 2022-23 financial year, compared with standard commercial contracts.

They are urging the council’s cabinet to stick with the CCS contracts for gas and electricity and to extend them so that they expire in March 2029 – two years beyond their current earliest end date. All the electricity is from renewable sources such as solar and wind.

A report to the cabinet said that the current deal had “insulated the council against some of the peaks in wholesale prices observed due to the ongoing ‘energy crisis’”.

Power markets have been volatile since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, with big increases in fuel prices.

A similar report to senior councillors five years ago said that the council’s bill was about £5.7 million a year. Since 2019, prices have risen by £3.8 million a year – or two thirds.

The council’s electricity bills cover 1,330 premises from council offices to schools and communal areas in blocks of flats as well as about 20,000 street light columns and 6,000 illuminated traffic signs and bollards.

The gas contract covers about 230 sites including schools, communal housing areas and other council-owned buildings.

The council has worked with East Sussex County Council and Surrey County Council on the contracts to avoid duplicating work and to save time and money.

In October, the council’s current £1.1 million-a-year “water supply and wastewater” contract with Wave Utilities is due to expire. The deal was arranged by the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation (YPO), a specialist buyer.

The council is responsible for about 400 “water supply points” in council offices and other buildings including schools and blocks of flats. All homes are supplied by Southern Water for just under £100,000 a year.

The latest contract with Wave, which started in March 2022, has included more frequent and accurate meter readings, with leaks and wastage picked up more quickly, including through alerts.

The council also now has 56 automatic meter reading (AMR) devices at some of the sites with the higher water consumption to help identify leaks and other higher-than-usual usage.

The cabinet is expected to approve working with the YPO and Wave again, with a new contract for up to four years.

The cabinet is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4.30pm on Thursday July 18. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.