Failed energy firm poses political puzzle for business secretary with wholesale markets still in turmoil
Five months after special administrators were appointed at Bulb in an act of quasi-nationalisation, the government is discovering a few truths that should have been obvious on day one.
There isn’t a long queue of would-be buyers willing to pay good money for a failed energy supplier with 1.7 million customers when wholesale markets are still in turmoil. Taxpayers’ financial exposure is only increasing with every passing month. And semi-state ownership brings some level of ministerial responsibility for how the business is run, including the inexplicable decision to continue paying Hayden Wood, co-founder and chief executive, his £250,000 salary as if nothing had happened.