Business people in the East Midlands are going back to the
classroom to learn how to read their gas and electricity bills.
Almost thirty have signed up for a Business Link course that
will teach them how to spot mistakes and work out if they are
paying too much.
It is a move which could save them thousands of pounds.
Envirup, a Nottingham company which specialises in helping firms
to sort out their energy costs says companies often automatically
pay their bills without ever checking if they are right.
But the market has become so complicated that it is easy for
mistakes to creep in.
The company has already one won customer a refund of more than
£100,000.
Now Envirup is holding the course in partnership with
Business Link to teach businesses how to read a gas or electricity
bill properly.
Envirup's Managing Director Assim Ishaque said: "We reckon that
at least 15 per cent of the bills we look at are wrong.
"It can cost companies tens of thousands of pounds a year. But
the bills are usually just paid automatically through the company's
accounts without anyone checking.
"There are so many ways an energy bill can go wrong - we've
identified more than twenty points in the system where the wrong
information can be put into a computer, changing someone's
account."
The company which won a one hundred thousand pounds refund had
called Envirup in to see if it could cut its electricity bill.
Instead the property management company found that it was being
overcharged for one of its sites. An error had crept in because
there were three meters on the site. Two were linked and should
have been counted as one, but the company was being billed for all
three.
The firm got a refund of £102,500 and cut its electricity
bill by £60,000 a year.
Assim Ishaque said: "Right now everyone is looking to save
money, and here's a way that businesses could be doing just
that.
"Not just that, they could be getting thousands of pounds
back.
"It's cash they can get with no extra investment or without
having to make changes to their businesses."
The first of the bill-reading classes is being held on September
29th at the Attenborough Nature Reserve.
Places are still available and a second course is planned for
later in the year.