Energy secretary Ed Davey today called for a national roll-out of collective bargaining on energy prices across the local government sector in order to tackle rising energy bills.

Mr Davey, speaking at the Local Government Association’s (LGA) annual conference in Birmingham, told delegates that action had to be taken on high energy bills and councils’ position of trust in communities gave them an opportunity to lead community switching or bulk purchasing schemes.

‘I think collective switching [of energy providers] has the potential to help those who are not switching and could find it difficult to switch’ Mr Davey said, referring to vulnerable community members and the ‘less internet savvy’. He added it was ‘critical’ to have a trusted third partner to help organise the process.

Mr Davey went on to say councils could not just get the benefit of helping communities switch energy providers to drive down costs, but also could help with ‘auctioning these offers and getting even better benefits’ for residents.

Collective switching of energy providers is a model that has been tried by consumer group Which? through its ‘The Big Switch’ campaign. The scheme saved thousands of residents £220 a year on their energy bills. And South Lakeland DC has also looked into the practice of auctioning off bulk energy purchases through a private company - a model that has worked well on the continent council officials said.

Mr Davey encouraged councils to work together on collective bargaining schemes and revealed the LGA is currently trying to facilitate this by creating a national framework so each individual council would not have to go through separate procurement processes.