A millionaire Labour donor’s firm has a contract with City Hall worth in excess of £3.5m, it has been revealed.
Dale Vince is the founder and owner of the green energy firm Ecotricity, which supplies electricity to the Greater London Authority.
Mr Vince has donated to Labour and the Green party and shared a platform with mayor Sir Sadiq Khan at Earthfest, the London sustainability festival, last year.
Sir Sadiq does not have a role in awarding the GLA’s commercial contracts – a point that was confirmed recently during the controversy over his decision to accept free tickets to a Taylor Swift concert from another supplier.
When details of the Ecotricity contract – which includes the supply of electricity for Trafalgar Square – was last published in 2020, it was valued at £470,000 a year.
A more recent freedom of information response, obtained by the Daily Mail, shows that Ecotricity has been paid £3.55million by City Hall since 2020/21.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing.
But Susan Hall, leader of the City Hall Conservatives, described the revelation as “very interesting” and said she was previously unaware that Mr Vince’s firm supplied power to City Hall.
She told the Mail: “I will certainly be asking questions about this and will be double checking that Londoners are getting value for money.”
Last year Mr Vance and Sir Sadiq shared “powerful insights about cutting out fossil fuels and saying no to animal agriculture” at the Earthfest festival.
…and best of all, tickets for the general public were free!
— ecotricity (@ecotricity) April 29, 2024
🗣️One standout moment? Sadiq Khan and Dale Vince teaming up for the cause. Their conversation was pure gold, as they shared powerful insights about cutting out fossil fuels and saying no to animal agriculture… pic.twitter.com/sqp7aFfqhQ
According to the Mail, Mr Vance has donated more than £5.5million to the Labour party or to its leading figures such as Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and deputy leader Angela Rayner.
An Ecotricity spokesman said: “Ecotricity has been supplying green energy to the public sector for three decades – since we first began. It’s entirely normal.
‘Our contract with the GLA has been widely reported on over the years – and was won in a competitive process via the local authority purchasing consortium, LASER. It’s a small contract and has no connection to anything else.”
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said: “The Mayor and his team had no involvement in or knowledge of this contract award.
“GLA officers appointed an independent public sector energy procurement company to find the best provider for the GLA’s requirements. The contract ends in March 2026.”
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