Liverpool's deputy mayor 'should resign over costly energy mess'

Liverpool City Council apologised for its "failures"

Liverpool's deputy mayor should resign over errors which led the city's annual energy costs rising by up to £16m, opposition councillors have said.

Mistakes, inaction and miscommunication left the city's Labour-led council on a more costly tariff after Scottish Power stopped supplying commercial customers.

Liberal Democrat group leader Richard Kemp said Jane Corbett "should resign and take political responsibility".

Ms Corbett said resigning over the "absolute disaster" would not help.

The authority's chief executive Tony Reeves apologised on Friday for "control failures and errors" in securing a continued deal with the energy firm.

A report said the cabinet was not informed the company had stopped supplying commercial customers and as such, the council's bill could rise from £8.5m to £13m.

It said the total cost, which would include schools and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service, may increase from £10.6m to £26m.

An independent investigation has been launched after it was jointly called for by Mr Reeves and Mayor Joanne Anderson.

'Not good enough'

Ms Corbett, who has responsibility for finance, said council tax payers will rightly be "absolutely furious" because the authority had "messed this up big-style", but added that rising energy costs meant "not all of that shortfall was down to error".

She said the council will have to dip into reserves to cover the shortfall for schools and the fire service, which she estimated at £3.9m and £1m respectively.

Mr Kemp said the deputy mayor "should resign and take political responsibility for this costly mess".

"Others, if not all, members of the cabinet at all levels should also consider their position", he added.

Ms Anderson has previously said she was "seeking full accountability for this costly error and appropriate action will be taken".

Anna Rothery, the leader of the newly-formed Liverpool Community Independents group, said it was "not good enough for senior officers and cabinet members to express shock that they did not know".

She said it was the councillors' "job to know", adding: "We had commissioners forced upon us precisely to achieve improvement. Where is it?"

The group's deputy leader Alan Gibbons said it was "an in-built series of failures running like dominoes through the council".

"We're supposed to be in a situation of recovery and then we get a heart attack," he added.

Analysis

By Claire Hamilton, BBC Radio Merseyside political reporter

Liverpool City Council is used to unpleasant shocks.

Last year's report by Max Caller was an earthquake which resulted in commissioners sent by Whitehall to oversee "dysfunctional" council departments.

This energy row reveals yet more dysfunction 12 months on and it has enraged opposition councillors, who want to know how an error on this scale could be approved by cabinet and how many pairs of eyes were on it without an alarm being raised?

But it's also got the potential for a seismic political shift in the council's ruling Labour group, with internal finger-pointing and old adversaries jostling for position, possibly with an eye on what happens if the city ditches the role of mayor.

All this against a backdrop of budget cuts, unpopular new waste collection charges and, of course, schools and household budgets being stretched by rising energy costs.