Police have launched an investigation after a training centre run by Scottish Power was vandalised by energy price protesters.
A group, who dubbed themselves ‘Make the Rich Pay’, smashed windows and hung a banner at the energy company’s Dealain House facility in Cumbernauld during a late-night raid on Tuesday.
The campaigners also painted a wind turbine outside the offices red and released a statement defending their “direct action”.
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The group said the protest was carried out after repeated attempts to meet with the company’s CEO, Keith Anderson, were rebuffed.
The activists are demanding the Scottish Power reverses its energy bills to the October 2021 price cap of £1,277, funded by money taken from shareholder dividends.
A statement released by ‘make the Rich Pay’ said: “Never before in living memory have the lines between the capitalists and the ordinary working people of this country been so obvious.
“Working people are sick of private profit being made from their immiseration, for example by having more than 20,000 of their meters forcibly and illegally replaced with prepayment meters by Scottish Power, as reported by Power To The People.
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“(Keith) Anderson and the SP board are just some examples of these capitalists. In their greed and hubris, they thought they would exploit our people even more, with record-high energy bills whilst their wealth sits in offshore tax havens.”
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said the force was aware of posts circulating on social media about the incident
She added: “We received a report of an attempted break-in to a premises on Napier Road, Cumbernauld, around 10pm on Tuesday, 11 April, 2023.
“Enquiries are ongoing.”
A Scottish Power Spokeswoman said: “We are aware of vandalism to the outside of our Dealain House training school in Cumbernauld last night and are supporting police with their enquiries.
"While we support people’s right to protest, we do not condone criminal behaviour of any kind. Our training school is an essential facility where our trainees and apprentices start out on the career ladder after leaving school and we are disappointed that it has been targeted in this way.
“We fully recognise the effect the cost-of-living crisis is having on people across the UK, not just on energy bills but across the wider economy. This issue is bigger than just one industry and that’s why we are actively engaging with Government on what more can be done to help people, particularly the most vulnerable.”
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