Sacha Lord vows to help operators battle energy company commission scandal

26-May-2023 - Last updated on 26-May-2023 at 12:14 GMT

Sacha Lord has said he is finalising a plan to help hospitality businesses recover hidden commissions paid to brokers by energy companies.

The night-time economy adviser for Greater Manchester announced on Twitter this morning (26 May) that he had engaged JMW Solicitors, the same law firm he used to force the Government to drop the 10pm curfew and ‘substantial meal’ rule back in 2021, and was working on a strategy to help operators ‘claw back money’ they had paid ‘under duress’.

“Many hours have already gone into this, and we are now making great progress in finalising a plan to help hospitality businesses to recover hidden commissions paid to brokers by energy companies,” he said.

“This is not just restricted to Greater Manchester; we’ve opened this up to the whole sector across the UK.

“Even businesses that have sadly had to close.”

Lord called the issue a ‘national scandal’ that was potentially as big as the PPI scandal, where millions of Brits were mis-sold PPI policies after taking out loans and credit cards from the early 1990s to 2010.

“All happened on Ofgem’s watch,” he added.

Back in January, Lord demanded a fast-track investigation into why energy support for hospitality businesses had been withheld.

At the time, operators who had spoken to Lord stated they hadn’t received any of the Government-pledged support they were entitled to since it was introduced in September last year.

Meanwhile, in February this year, Litigation law firm Harcus Parker claimed millions of businesses could be entitled to compensation from energy giants over secret commissions paid to third-party brokers.

It accused gas and electricity suppliers of offering payments to incentivise brokers to sign up customers, ignoring whether energy is or is not cheaper for the end user who is unaware how much money is being distributed to the broker.

In some cases, the secret payments allegedly inflated bills by 50% in a practice that Harcus Parker said appeared to have been developed over the last 20 years.

Lord said he would post another update within the next two weeks with details on operators could make a claim.