‘Why is Marvin Rees being so secretive about Bristol Energy?’

Bristol’s taxpayers have sunk about £40m into trying to make a success of Bristol Energy. I say taxpayers, because the money spent by Bristol City Council all comes from households or businesses, one way or another.

But we taxpayers were never really asked whether we wanted to take such a large punt in the volatile energy market. We don’t know how our money’s been spent, despite repeated attempts to find out by opposition party councillors.

Mayor Marvin Rees is determined to keep it that way, presiding over an energy company where we are all kept in the dark. He and his Labour colleagues last week voted down a joint Liberal Democrat and Conservative motion that called for an independent inquiry into the company’s finances.

I wonder why the mayor is being so secretive. What is he trying to stop us seeing?

Nobody should reasonably expect him to be an expert in the complexities of the energy market. But we are entitled to expect our political leaders to have a care for the stewardship of our money in their hands.

It has been a concern of many people for a long time that Bristol Energy was haemorrhaging cash. Rather than a return on its investment, the city was propping up an ailing and maybe ultimately failing company.

When did mayor Rees become aware of this fact? Did he understand the scale of the problem? Did he pay due attention to briefings and warnings? Or was he distracted by more interesting stuff in his in-box?

Mayor Rees and I are both keen watchers of American politics, so I know he will be aware of this quote: “You campaign in poetry but govern in prose.” It was said by the former (and father of the current) governor of New York, Mario Cuomo.

The speech was a warning Cuomo gave his fellow Democrats that you can have all the highfalutin language and soaring phrases you like but the people expect politicians to work hard, study the detail and act to make a difference.

Many of us have sat through a speech from Rees and wondered what it all meant. Anyone watching Rees at mayor’s question time in City Hall will have cringed at the disdainful way he responds to both councillors and the public. This is a mayor who does not react well when challenged and appears to fear scrutiny.

Another well-known aspect of Rees’s behaviour is his taste for foreign travel. We have a city mayor who clearly enjoys globetrotting and one suspects has desires to be seen as a global figure.

I’m not opposed to politicians travelling, I did some myself when in office. But the travel must have some purpose, to win investment for the city (which is actually the West of England mayor’s job) or to learn some policy lessons to transform services in Bristol.

Rees is actually in charge of several essential services in Bristol. The biggest, social care, is critical during the Covid-19 crisis. But I suspect that Rees finds all this prosaic stuff about budgets and services rather dull. Much more fun to attend a Global Parliament of Mayors, on which he is a member of the executive committee.

Perhaps this is what the mayor wants to keep from our eyes. That he was so busy travelling around the world and talking about illusory billions for an underground system that will never be built that he failed to act soon enough to stop the wasting of tens of millions at Bristol Energy.

He managed to stop the true scale of the horror from emerging before the elections that were scheduled for May this year. Now the people’s verdict on his term of office has to wait until next year and by then we will surely know the full scale of the mess and what it’s cost us all.

The outcome for Rees could be dire and maybe more people will conclude that it’s time to switch off the post of elected mayor too.

Stephen Williams was Liberal Democrat MP for Bristol West from 2005-15 and was communities & local government minister in the coalition government. He stood unsuccessfully for the position of West of England mayor in 2017 and is the Lib Dem candidate for Hotwells & Harbourside ward. 

Main photo: Bristol Energy

Read more: Bristol Energy: a timeline