UK couple crowdfunding ‘the people’s energy company’

A UK couple is pioneering a new crowdfunding project, reaching out to consumers across Britain to help start up a transparent energy company in response to the big six’s “contempt for customers”.

The Our Energy project aims to give consumers with rising prices, lack of transparency and poor customer service opportunity to ‘chip in’ to create a customer owned energy company.

The supplier looks to offer a transparent service through sharing details on salaries, decisions, accounts and prices with its customers.

David Pike and Karin Sode are leading the initiative which aims to crowdfund £450,000 and to make Our Energy operational in 2017. At time of writing the project had raised raised £59,490.

The company plans to give 75 per cent of its profits back to its customers, who will be represented on the board of directors. Our Energy customers will also become part owners of the company after three years with the supplier.

Promoting the crowdfunding project, Pike said that UK consumers have “quite rightly lost trust in their energy suppliers”.

Our Energy customers will “never need to switch supplier again” due to their ownership role in the company with “complete trust in its practices”, said Pike. He claims that the project will “bring democracy and transparency to the UK’s energy market”.

Karin Sode added: “Energy comes from natural resources that should belong to us all, not private entities. We are absolutely passionate about returning ownership of this natural resource to consumers.”

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