Blaby District Council: Big Community Switch

• Location: Blaby District Council 

• Purpose: Blaby District Council set up the Big Community Switch to help residents lower their energy bills and their emissions. The scheme helped residents leverage their buying power to switch to greener, cheaper and more sustainable tariffs.

• Description: Blaby District Council partnered with iChoosr, a collective of energy experts, to run the Big Community Switch scheme. Residents registered for free to take part in the energy auction, where the collective buying power of the residents was leveraged to get a better deal from energy suppliers. Households could choose whether or not to take the offered energy tariff. Since 2020, Blaby District Council has seen 6,125 households and 814 taking the switch. Households have saved a combined £119,964, and an estimated 617 tonnes of CO2 have been prevented from entering the atmosphere. 

• Funding: The scheme is funded via Blaby District Council’s community services budget. Residents could register for free to take part in the auction.

• Conservative councillor/ council lead: Cllr Les Phillimore

• Further links: Big Community Switch link