Bulb’s collapse in November 2021 was the most significant among dozens of supplier failures, with Ofgem, the industry regulator, facing heavy criticism for its approach to licensing new entrants to the market.
The independent Office for Budget Responsibility said in March that the bailout of Bulb would require more than £2bn to cover its operating losses, although that figure is since understood to have soared.
Nevertheless, it is still dwarfed by the cost of subsidising household and business energy bills for the next six months, which the Centre for Economics and Business Research, a think-tank, has estimated at in the region of £30bn.
It was unclear on Thursday whether talks about the sale of Bulb would be further complicated by Liz Truss’s resignation as prime minister.