The collapse of Robin Hood Energy has left more than £53 million of bills unpaid, a report on its final liquidation shows.
The winding-up of the failed council-run energy company has been completed five years after it went into administration.
In the final round of the company, it was concluded there were 347 claims of owed money from individuals and companies amounting to £67.1 million in total.
According to the final report by liquidators, published last week, only £13.7 million of the claims has been paid out.
This means more than £53 million in claims will go unpaid by the failed firm.
Robin Hood Energy (RHE) was set up by Nottingham City Council in 2015 to compete with the ‘big six’ energy companies as a not-for-profit offering a cheaper energy alternative.
It had around 125,000 customers at its peak, but a public interest review later called the opening of the company “institutional blindness”, and its collapse was estimated to cost taxpayers £38 million.
Its failure, leading to a drain on Nottingham City Council’s cash reserves, was part of the reason why the authority issued a Section 114 notice in November 2023, effectively declaring bankruptcy.
Among those receiving some money back, tax department HMRC got £917,000, which was its full claim, in May 2023. This is because it was given priority as it acts on behalf of the government to recover money for taxpayers.
According to a 2021 document, Derby City Council was owed £21,509, and energy regulator Ofgem was owed £17.3 million.
The final settlement document says most claimants received a dividend amounting to 22.9 pence for every £1 in their claims.
This means that Ofgem would have received under £4 million of its original claim, and Derby City Council would have received just under £5,000.
In its first two years, the company reported losses, but between 2016 and 2019, its turnover increased from £4.6 million to nearly £100 million.
The company was expecting to break even in 2018, with a surplus made in 2019.
Former leader of the city council and first appointed a director at the company in 2016, Jon Collins, previously said the company had problems in purchasing gas.
He said RHE asked if it could have a financial guarantee to forward purchase gas in June 2018—this approval was only given in October, by which time there had been a “massive gas hike” in the summer.
Some RHE prices increased by 14 per cent as a result.
It was also revealed in 2018 that RHE broke rules over the declaration of a £7.5 million investment in £1 shares from Nottingham City Council because it did not inform Companies House.
Previously, Mr Collins said he took some responsibility for the firm’s downfall, saying: “The end result of that was the reputation of the company was undermined, the ability to forward purchase and to cash-flow operations were massively undermined, and it was downhill from there.”
Nottingham City Council has been contacted for comment.
• Lack of foster families to cost council over £11m a year in outsourcing
