Independent Wigan church stunned after receiving £4,000 gas bill for lockdown period

The Living Faith Church in Orrell was completely out of use and was barely using any utilities in the past three months, but was stunned to receive an “outrageous” second quarter bill from SSE Energy for more than £4,000.

The eye watering sum followed another demand for £2,500 for the first three months of 2020, and the independent church’s leaders have been left wondering how they will afford the figure.

Bishop Steven Evans said the Church had provided SSE with an accurate meter reading after the first bill, which would have shown that little to no energy was being used due to the building being closed and the gas being switched off.

He said: “I don’t usually get involved with the bills, usually it’s the treasury, but I was told about it and thought we needed to look into what was going on, because it was surprising.

“We took a reading for the next bill, and then they told us that we now owe more than £4,000!

“As I explained to the man I spoke to on the phone, we have not used the building for several months, because of Covid-19.

“Whilst we haven’t been having our usual meetings, the post office has remained open.

“The church also operates a food bank here, and at times has stored food parcels to be distributed to the community, from our community hall.

“But we haven’t been putting our gas on.

“There haven’t been any services, and also it’s summer time. Everything is switched off, so we are utterly bemused as to where this amount has come from. It’s more than a couple of cathedrals would pay!”

He went on: “It’s an almost impossible situation. We just can’t deal with SSE.

“There is just no response from anyone there, they are just sending demand letters for this bill.

“I think it’s a scandal that they’ve not been in touch with us. They know it’s a church, they know the pressure that we’ve been under.

“We’ve been a central hub for the local Covid-19 response, and they have totally ignored us. They couldn’t care less that this could jeopardise us.

“There is just no way that a small local church could pay this sort of bill.

“We’re an independent church, we’re not part of a big denomination. All of our monies come from the local people and we’re run by local volunteers.”

Bishop Evans added: “It’s outrageous. When you think about what the Government is doing to try to help, and then you’ve got an organisation like us, who have been devoted to doing all we can for the local people at this time, and then a big energy company comes along with a huge bill like this.”

A spokesman for the energy firm said: “SSE Business Energy does not comment on the specifics of individual customer cases.

“We are in contact with the customer in question and are working with them to resolve any issues they may have.”

The Church held its first Sunday post-lockdown Sunday service on August 2.

Worshippers were safely welcomed back following the implementation of several social distancing measures, such as a booking system and staggered exit times.