Examination of Witnesses (Questions 80-99)
ENERGYWATCH AND
POSTWATCH
19 JANUARY 2005
Q80 Mr Bacon: How much. How much are
you paying out gross?
Mr Asher: This year, we shall
reduce that outgoing to £74,000 net.
Q81 Mr Bacon: Some of the offices you
have are still empty, are they?
Mr Asher: Yes, that is right.
Q82 Mr Bacon: Excluding the one which
will be redeveloped, there will still be offices which are empty?
Mr Asher: Yes, that is correct.
Q83 Mr Bacon: Have you thought of allowing
some squatters to take them over and occupy them?
Mr Asher: We are taking various
initiatives with the Department of Trade and Industry and other
government agencies, but there are just some great difficulties
in this, although we have not explored the option that you suggested.
Q84 Mr Bacon: Are you going to?
Mr Asher: Possibly not. I think
there are certain accounting requirements on us that might make
that unlikely.
Q85 Mr Bacon: This is really for both
of you. You both have offices in London. Why do you need to be
in London at all? First Mr Asher.
Mr Asher: We have two offices
in London. One is our head office and we have a regional office.
May I just divide them for the moment? In relation to our head
office, we have very, very frequent contact with Ofgem, the regulator,
with various parliamentary committees, the Trade and Industry
Select Committee twice in the next two weeks, with the Department
of Trade and Industry, many of our key stakeholders. There are
quite powerful reasons for some of our policy and head office
functions here. We do also have a regional office here; there
the arguments are not so strong. When it was first set up in 2000,
that was as a result of a quite wide consultation. We shall be
reviewing that at the next available opportunity when lease breaks
and things come up, but, again, I think the Committee—
Q86 Mr Bacon: You have set up a regional
office in London?
Mr Asher: Yes.
Q87 Mr Bacon: That was to do what? To
liaise with your regional offices?
Mr Asher: No, it is responsible
for dealing with the South and East of England in receiving and
handling complaints.
Q88 Mr Bacon: Why did you not put it
into some of your empty accommodation in Bristol or Chester or
wherever and save money?
Mr Asher: In co-locating, it was
felt at the time of establishment of Energywatch that certain
efficiencies would come from that.
Q89 Mr Bacon: Mr McGregor, why does your
organisation need to be in London at all?
Mr McGregor: Our position is very
similar. Government is here, Parliament is here, the Royal Mail
is headquartered here in London, many of our stakeholders are
also headquartered in London and also, which is important to our
influencing role, much of the media is based here in London to
which we obviously need to have regular access. For all of those
reasons, we think it is important to have a London based presence.
Q90 Mr Williams: There is just a mantra,
is there not, as far as London is concerned, a standard mantra?
How many times have you been before a select committee since you
have been set up, each of you? Let us start with energy. How many
days have you spent in front of a select committee since you were
established? I have forgotten the date on which you were established.
Mr Asher: In November 2000. The
Trade and Industry Select Committee on four occasions—
Q91 Mr Williams: Oh well, that is a pressing
need to be in London, is it not? That really is convincing. Now
when you talk about stakeholders, what do you mean by stakeholders?
Are they the people who are providing you with your funds?
Mr Asher: I mentioned those separately.
Q92 Mr Williams: Yes, but who are they?
Mr Asher: The Department of Trade
and Industry is a key party with whom we are dealing all of the
time and Ofgem.
Q93 Mr Williams: They seem to have no
problem keeping in touch with their regional offices, so why would
they have trouble keeping in touch with you? I am sure they do
not need to be in touch with you all that often, do they?
Mr Asher: For Ofgem, we find there
are daily contacts on a whole range of issues.
Q94 Mr Williams: Do you mean you have
to pop over there, or do they phone you?
Mr Asher: It is both. We use the
phone; we have just a few meetings.
Q95 Mr Williams: They could phone wherever
you are.
Mr Asher: Yes.
Q96 Mr Williams: So they do not need
that and there is such a thing as e-mail as well. I should like
some sort of schedule of your actual visits.[3]
Mr Asher: To all of our stakeholders?
Q97 Mr Williams: Yes. Who are the other
stakeholders?
Mr Asher: Parliament itself. We
make visits to Parliament to have surgeries with MPs and discussions.
Q98 Mr Williams: You have surgeries with
MPs.
Mr Asher: Yes, in fact one in
the next week or two, where we will be advising MPs on problems
of constituents with disconnections.
Q99 Mr Williams: It would not be possible
just to send someone by rail to go to do one of those, would it?
Mr Asher: I am sure there are
many ways in which that could be done.
3 Note by Witness: Between 1 October 2004 and
31 January 2005, 206 external meetings were attended by Energywatch
staff in London. Back
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