Havering Council in London is offering residents a new scheme that will allow energy suppliers to bid as a new potential supplier for groups of householders.

Residents who are interested in switching suppliers can sign up to the Collective Switching Scheme with no obligation to switch if they don’t want to.

The scheme works by using the buying power of many residents to attract lower prices from energy companies. Once a group is formed, the council will then ask suppliers to bid for their custom.

The supplier with the lowest price wins the auction and the group will then be given an offer that can be accepted or declined.

The closing date to sign up is 2 February.

It’s not the first time Havering has offered the scheme, last year it reported 2,000 people in the London borough clubbed together, along with thousands more around the country.

It is powered by iChoosr, a ‘white label’ switching service which has run group switching services in the Netherlands and Belgium.