Scottish Government have still not investigated £10m investment they lost to failed power company

Scottish Liberal Democrat economy spokesperson Willie Rennie MSP has today accused ministers of burning taxpayers’ money as he revealed that the Scottish Government still hasn’t reviewed what happened to their £10m investment in Our Power, an energy company that went bust in January 2019.

Our Power, a not-for-profit, commenced trading in 2016. It had 31,000 customers and around 75 staff when it went bust. The insolvency report showed that the Scottish Government was the largest backer, providing £9.8 million in loans. In February 2020 a whistle-blower revealed that the Scottish Government-backed venture failed to bill its customers, branding it “doomed to fail”.

However, a Scottish Liberal Democrat freedom of information request has now revealed that the Scottish Government has still not completed a formal review of this investment. It has only retrieved £450,000 through the administration process to date.

Willie Rennie said: 

“Our Power lost money from day one and racked up huge losses, backed by almost £10 million of investment from SNP ministers. Given that many customers went unbilled, they might as well have simply burned taxpayers’ money.  

“With people going cold and energy bills through the roof, the Scottish Government should be eager to learn from its failures in order to shape future support. Instead, it swept this under the carpet for four years.

“This review needs to take place as soon as possible. The business minister should come to Parliament to confirm when it will be completed and come clean on whether any more of taxpayers’ money is likely to be clawed back from the collapsed firm.  

“If nothing is learned and no one carries the can, what is to stop these failures repeating at the next Scottish Government-backed venture?”