End Fuel Poverty Coalition, Author at End Fuel Poverty Coalition

Public demand more government action on energy crisis

The overwhelming majority of the population believe the Government should do more to help people through the energy crisis, according to new polling by Omnisis on behalf of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.

Over 60 charities, co-ordinated by the Warm This Winter campaign, have joined forces to write to the new Prime Minister [pdf] demanding more financial and non-financial support for the 7m UK households currently in fuel poverty.

The letter goes on to call for the upweighting of benefits and urgent clarification of energy bills support available from April 2023, a massive programme of energy efficiency measures and the speeding up of moves to cheaper renewable energy.

The campaigners are supported by the new research which shows 76% of the population think the Government is not doing enough to support vulnerable households this winter.

Even taking into account the Energy Price Guarantee and the Energy Bills Support Scheme pledged by the Government, 58% of the population believe they will struggle to pay their bills this winter.

The research shows that people in the South West (68%), Wales (64%), the East Midlands and the North East (both 63%) are the areas where the most people are fighting to make ends meet.

And the situation will get worse. Over 8 in 10 (83%) are very or quite worried about the prospect of bills going up further in April 2023 when the current Government support programmes run out.

Joe Cole, Chief Executive of Advice for Renters, is one of the signatories of the letter and commented:

One of our clients who suffers from PTSD was pushed close to suicide when he couldn’t top up his pre-payment meter.

Thankfully, help was on hand and he has now been put back in credit, but he remains traumatised and his experience is proof of just how damaging life in fuel poverty can be on mental and physical health.

Tessa Khan, director of Uplift, said:

While our politicians have spent months fighting among themselves, the public has been watching this crisis bearing down on us.

It now demands urgent government action, which means more support for those who need it this winter, and the wholesale replacement of Truss’ implausible and wrong-headed plans for taxpayer-subsidised gas production with a government-backed programme to insulate homes and an acceleration of cheaper renewables.

Pragmatism not ideology must be what drives this government’s decisions.

Gavin Smart, CEO Chartered Institute of Housing, commented:

Renters are being hit particularly hard by the cost of living crisis. Social landlords are doing what they can to support residents, but too often they are still unable to afford to heat their homes. We urgently need the government to commit to uprating benefits with inflation and guaranteeing energy bills support beyond April, alongside a national insulation programme, to reduce unaffordable bills in both the short and long term.

Sarah Woolnough, CEO of Asthma + Lung UK, said:

Untenable cost of living hikes are forcing people with lung conditions to make impossible choices about their health, with people already reporting a sharp decline in their lung health.

Lives are at risk if the government doesn’t step in to help people with lung conditions, to provide more support for people on low incomes so they can afford to keep their homes warm this winter.

Richard Quallington, Executive Director of Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE) said:

It’s not just deprived urban areas where people will be struggling to heat their homes this winter. Many rural parts of the country are also seeing large numbers of people running into difficulties, particularly those living in older homes that are not connected to mains gas.

Rachel Kirby-Rider, Chief Executive of Young Lives vs Cancer, said:

Young Lives vs Cancer have been calling on the government for years to tackle the huge costs experienced by children and young people with cancer and their families. They are disproportionately affected by the cost of living crisis, and were already experiencing unmanageable costs before bills started to rise.

When you care for a child or young person with cancer, you don’t have a choice whether to keep the heating on to keep them well. We urgently need an energy and cost of living plan that protects the poorest and most vulnerable – including children and young people with cancer.

ENDS

Omnisis surveyed 1,382 people on 21 October 2022. Results were weighted to be reflective of the GB population. Omnisis is a member of the British Polling Council. Full results can be downloaded from the following link: https://www.omnisis.co.uk/poll-results/VI-5-results-20-10-2022-energy

Protesters raise issue of fuel poverty in Westminster

A petition calling for an overhaul of our energy pricing structure has been delivered to Downing Street.

The ‘Energy For All’ petition, signed by over 650,000 people, calls for a universal, free amount of energy that would cover everyone’s basic necessities of heating, lighting and cooking.

This would be paid for by ending the millions of pounds spent daily on fossil fuel subsidies, windfall taxes on excess profits of energy companies and higher prices for profligate energy use.

The event, organised by Fuel Poverty Action included a rally and march attended by around 100 people and also backed members of the Warm This Winter campaign.

Stuart Bretherton, Energy For All Campaign Coordinator, said:

Millions of people will face fuel poverty this winter, with prices sitting at double what they were last year, and now renewed uncertainty over how high they will climb next year.

Energy For All would deliver justice and security to all consumers now and in the future, by ensuring everyone’s basic needs are met and that steps are taken to address the climate crisis. Ordinary people cannot keep footing the bill for crises created by the wealthy, it’s time for the big polluters and profiteers to pay their share.

Over 20 MPs from multiple parties also attended to show their support for the demand.

A day prior to the petition hand-in, Early Day Motion was launched in parliament to support some of the key components of the ‘Energy For All’ demand.

Constituents can write to their MP urging them to sign the EDM using an Action Network template: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/ask-your-mp-to-support-a-universal-basic-energy-allowance

Protestors from Greenpeace and Fuel Poverty Action also took direct action in Parliament as the new Prime Minister was announced.

The activists, endorsed by Disabled People Against Cuts, are demanding that the next prime minister start putting the welfare of the British people before fossil fuel companies by properly taxing oil and gas profits and launching a nationwide home insulation programme to tackle fuel poverty.

As figures show that fuel poverty in Rishi Sunak’s constituency will hit 40% of households, protesters have also recently called for more action to help those in fuel poverty and the introduction of a real oil and gas windfall tax to help those most in need.

Image: Angela Christofilou

Fuel poverty levels in Sunak, Mordaunt, Johnson & Hunt seats revealed

New estimates by the End Fuel Poverty Coalition reveal that the axing of the Energy Price Guarantee could lead to almost 11m UK households in fuel poverty from April 2023.

And in the constituencies of the Tory leadership candidates, tens of thousands of homes will face fuel poverty.

The figures come as the Warm This Winter campaign has called for £14bn of additional financial support as well as non-financial help for households this winter.

Chief among the non-financial asks is an immediate suspension of all forced transfers of households onto more expensive pre-payment meters (PPMs), whether by court warrant or remotely via smart meters.

These demands come alongside calls for more investment in energy efficiency and a move towards a renewable energy future, and away from oil and gas.

A spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented:

The constant u-turns and paralysis in government has millions of victims: the people condemned to fuel poverty.

Had we had a functioning government this year, the energy bills crisis would not have gotten out of hand and we wouldn’t be in a situation now where we have 7m homes in fuel poverty.

People are now dreading the dark nights and cold weather. The NHS is at crisis point and will be unable to cope with the health impacts of people living in cold damp homes.

We need to see an immediate £14bn package of support to help the most vulnerable stay warm this winter.

In addition, the Chancellor must urgently meet with charities and consumer groups to devise support plans for 2023 and beyond to stop even more households falling into fuel poverty.

Tessa Khan, director of Uplift, which is part of the Warm This Winter campaign, said:

Is anyone in Westminster paying attention to what’s happening in the rest of the country? We urgently need a plausible energy plan from the government to ensure people can stay warm this winter and next.

Truss’ ideas, which relied on fracking and new North Sea gas, were as misguided as her economic plan. Neither will make a material difference to people’s lives, they would just make oil and gas companies even richer.

The Chancellor needs to bin Truss’ energy plan, as he has the rest of her agenda, and replace it with measures that will genuinely make a difference to people’s lives, like a subsidised programme of home insulation and more affordable renewable energy.

Cara Jenkinson, Cities Manager at Ashden, which is part of the Warm This Winter campaign, added:

Poor quality homes that leak energy are currently causing the NHS £1.4bn a year as well as misery for people in damp, cold homes.

To solve fuel poverty for good, we need a rapid scale-up of home retrofit focused on the areas that need it most, with an investment in the construction skills needed so that work isn’t stalled by a lack of workers.

Fuel poverty set to hit 11m households as protesters gather in Westminster

New estimates by the End Fuel Poverty Coalition reveal that the axing of the Energy Price Guarantee could lead to almost 11m UK households in fuel poverty from April 2023.

Based on the latest estimates on energy prices from Cornwall Insight, figures will rise from 7m households now to 10.7m (a rise from 24.5% to 37.6% of households) from April 2023.

While numbers will then fall slightly, it will still leave 10.1m households in fuel poverty in winter 2023/24.

The figures come as protestors gather in London to ask MPs to back plans for a universal basic energy allowance.

This energy allowance, which would meet basic needs for heating, cooking and lighting, is the core component of the Energy For All petition which will be handed into Downing Street today with more than 600,000 signatures.

MPs can also now back an Early Day Motion supporting the Energy For All plans. Ruth London of Fuel Poverty Action said:

Even the Energy Price Guarantee, which was billed as the government’s two-year solution to the price crisis, will not last two years but will end in April.The outlook is frankly terrifying.

It is now all the more essential – and more possible – to win a totally new pricing framework like Energy For All. Finally there is now support for this inside Parliament.”

A spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented:

The government may have brought some stability to the markets, but it has come at the cost of huge instability in households’ finances.

The new Chancellor must work quickly, and with consumer groups and charities, to design a new package of support and energy market reforms that will help those in fuel poverty now and post April.

But while the political focus on energy bills may now have shifted to next April, millions of the most vulnerable will be living in cold and damp homes this winter and will need further financial and non-financial support.

The Warm This Winter campaign has called for GBP14bn of additional financial support as well as non-financial help for households this winter.

These demands come alongside calls for more investment in energy efficiency and a move towards a renewable energy future, and away from oil and gas.

Cara Jenkinson, Cities Manager at Ashden, which is part of the Warm This Winter campaign, added:

Poor quality homes that leak energy are currently causing the NHS £1.4bn a year as well as misery for people in damp, cold homes.

To solve fuel poverty for good, we need a rapid scale-up of home retrofit focused on the areas that need it most, with an investment in the construction skills needed so that work isn’t stalled by a lack of workers.

Tessa Khan, director of Uplift, said:

On top of everything else, this government’s plan to fix the UK’s energy system is also in disarray.

We need a government prepared to tackle the crisis at its root, which means moving the UK off volatile fossil fuels with a national insulation programme to cut waste, and a massive acceleration in renewable energy, which is now nine times cheaper than gas.

This is the only way to permanently lower energy bills.

The government needs to stop adding to our problems and fix the ones on their desk. This must begin today with providing more targeted help for those who are going to be hit hardest.

Ross Matthewman, Head of Policy and Public Affairs of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health said:

The decision to end the price cap freeze after six months rather than the proposed two years will have a devastating effect on households struggling with their energy bills. While insufficient, the two-year energy price cap freeze provided some reprieve to households, who now face grave uncertainty on what support on household energy bills exist beyond April.

We urgently call on the UK government to get a grip, reinstate the two-year energy price cap freeze as well as intervene more broadly to support households struggling with their energy bills.

While we welcomed the government’s Energy Bills Support Scheme, it is apparent that £400 spread over six months is simply not going to be enough to tackle the spiralling cost of energy crisis, with more significant intervention needed.

Not only are we are calling on the government to double the amount of financial support provided to households to protect households this winter, but we are also urging them to introduce a raft of energy efficiency measures. Such measures can act both as a means of supporting households most in need right now as well as shielding households from spiralling energy bills in the long-term.

New chancellor set to axe Energy Price Guarantee from April

Fuel poverty campaigners have reacted with shock to news that the new Chancellor will end the Energy Price Guarantee in April 2023.

A spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition commented:

The country was already facing a financial cliff edge in April due to plans to end other support packages, but this cliff edge has now become even steeper.

Without the Energy Price Guarantee, the Government will need to fundamentally reform the energy market alongside providing unprecedented levels of support for energy efficiency schemes and financial support for the most vulnerable.

But any threat to people’s energy security is a threat to their health and wellbeing. If people cannot trust the Government to deliver the support it has promised, what trust can anyone have that they will keep people warm this winter and beyond?

The need for the Government to provide additional support for the most vulnerable this winter has also not disappeared and we hope the Treasury quickly acts to reassure households.

Chaitanya Kumar, head of environment and the green transition at the New Economics Foundation, commented:

The biggest surprise in the chancellor’s statement is to scale back the energy price guarantee, the government’s flagship support programme. The unfrozen price cap is now expected to rise above £6,000 from April 2023, which creates a massive cliff edge for families.

The government should get support where it’s most needed and fix our broken energy market. One way of doing this is by entitling every family to a basic amount of universal energy at free or subsidised rates.

This can ensure that nobody is left to make choices between heating and eating while encouraging those who can afford it to reduce their energy use.

But the only long-term solution to real energy security is to help people cut their energy demand and the first step is to help insulate our homes.

There is still time to roll out an emergency insulation programme this winter that can save both families and the treasury billions.

Henry Gregg, Director of External Affairs at Asthma + Lung UK, said:

Removing the energy price guarantee will spark fear in people living with long-term lung conditions, such as asthma and COPD, who need to keep their homes warm to survive.

People who were already struggling with rising energy bills are now hanging on by a thread with no safety net in place beyond next spring. Millions of people in this country are already living in fuel poverty and an end to the bill freeze in April could negatively impact many, many more.

Lives are already being lost, the Government must act now to prevent further damage. It must commit to helping people with lung conditions, who need warm homes to survive, and provide financial support for people facing extra energy bills for life-saving medical equipment.

Juliet Philips from the E3G think tank tweeted:

▶️Essential gov gets ‘targeting’ right – huge risk that millions could fall through gap with simple metrics
▶️£2.5k is untenable for fuel poor – quantum must be increased for vulnerable
▶️Must boost investment in long-term solutions to lower bills; home retrofits & renewables https://t.co/8b19IDZghZ— Juliet Phillips (@_JulietPhillips) October 17, 2022

While National Energy Action called the plan, said the almighty trade-off “may provide confidence and certainty for markets, it could cause anxiety and doubt for households” leaving families “clinging on by their fingertips.”

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK, said:

It’s been hard keeping up with all the fiscal policy changes the last few days, but they seem to leave us in a position now in which nothing is guaranteed and with the Government increasingly warning of ‘hard choices to come’. This chilling outlook will be a huge concern for our older population, with only the healthiest and wealthiest able to view the future with equanimity.

Pensioners on low and modest incomes, or with high costs, have the most to worry about and for their sake we urge the Government to raise benefits in line with prices, not wages, and to extend help far enough up the income range so that the group once referred to by their party as ‘just about managing’, (i.e. not just those living below the poverty line) also get some support. The truth is that all these groups of older people, numbering several million, need an injection of additional cash to see them through the winter, not only from April 2023 onwards, when we trust that Ministers will keep their promise to reinstate the triple lock. Without more support between now and the spring though, the prospects for pensioners on low and modest incomes and with no savings are bleak, and we cannot see how they will be able to afford to buy even the basics. Without more help it seems certain that some will sink into deep hardship this winter unlike anything most of us have seen before.

Older people depend on being able to access good quality health and social care, and with the quality and availability of these services already severely compromised by shortages of staff and funding, the idea that there could be any further cuts to them is inconceivable. Both need more resources and a long-term sustainable plan for the future, not further cuts and uncertainty.

Like most of the older people we exist to help, at Age UK we are incredibly worried about what may be to come, and we implore the Government to stand with our older population through this crisis.

Government £14bn short on measures to tackle fuel poverty

Around seven million homes in the UK will experience dire fuel poverty without a further £14bn package of emergency support, according to campaigners. [1]

Despite the Energy Price Guarantee, the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme and other support already announced, more help will be needed to prevent the severe health impacts of living in cold, damp homes crippling the NHS and causing excess winter deaths.

Even including the Energy Price Guarantee, the End Fuel Poverty Coalition calculates that the unit cost of gas has increased by between 153% and 165% since winter 2021, while the unit cost of electricity has increased 63-68%. [2]

The Warm This Winter campaign is now calling for additional financial and non-financial support for households this winter. [3]

Financially, Warm This Winter is calling for additional, targeted financial support measures to those who need it most. This would include a third cost of living payment of £325 for those on income linked benefits to be paid on 1 December.

Campaigners have also asked for a further £150 uplift in disability benefits, the restoration of the £20 Universal Credit uplift, increasing the energy bill support payments for people who do not have a mains gas connection and ensuring that all households who received the Warm Homes Discount last winter can access a £150 rebate this winter (regardless of the new process which now uses an algorithm to decide who benefits).

The cost of these additional financial measures would be around £14bn, but the Government could further help those with pre-existing health conditions by suspending all prescription charges in England and suspending any deductions to benefits to recover money owed for a variety of debts and advances, including energy bills.

Sarah Woolnough, CEO of Asthma + Lung UK, said:

With millions of homes set to be plunged into fuel poverty this winter, we’re extremely concerned that the nation’s lung health will rapidly deteriorate if the government doesn’t step up to help the most vulnerable.

If people cannot afford to heat their homes, they may be forced to live in freezing homes where cold and flu viruses can thrive. Cold air is a common trigger for people with lung conditions, with around two-thirds of people with asthma and COPD that we surveyed saying that it can make their symptoms worse.

We know that people with lung conditions are already struggling with price hikes – 1 in 5 that we surveyed said they’d had an asthma attack because of changes they’d made to their lives in response to the cost of living crisis, such as skipping meals, not picking up prescriptions, and using mains-powered medical machinery less. Things will only get worse when temperatures plummet and colds and viruses ramp up.

We need the government to do more for people with chronic health conditions, and to provide targeted financial support for people on low incomes and living with lung disease. Without these measures, there is the real risk that people will be forced to take major risks with their health this winter.

A spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, commented:

In addition to supporting households now, Government policy has created a cliff edge in April 2023, with the Energy Bills Support Scheme and additional Cost of Living Payments due to end.

This will result in the numbers of households in fuel poverty rising to almost eight million. The situation will be made worse if benefits are not uprated by inflation and if prescription charges increase.

Therefore the Government must also set out a medium term plan for financial support while we wait for longer term measures to take effect.

Cara Jenkinson, Cities Manager, Ashden said:

Poor quality homes that leak energy are currently causing the NHS £1.4bn a year as well as misery for people in damp, cold homes.

To solve fuel poverty for good, we need a rapid scale-up of home retrofit focused on the areas that need it most, with an investment in the construction skills needed so that work isn’t stalled by a lack of workers.

Tessa Khan, director of Uplift, said:

On top of everything else, this government’s plan to fix the UK’s energy system is also in disarray. We need a government prepared to tackle the crisis at its root, which means moving the UK off volatile fossil fuels with a national insulation programme to cut waste, and a massive acceleration in renewable energy, which is now nine times cheaper than gas. This is the only way to permanently lower energy bills.

The government needs to stop adding to our problems and fix the ones on their desk. This must begin today with providing more targeted help for those who are going to be hit hardest.

Other measures the government could take to support households stay warm this winter, include:

The launch of a centralised public information campaign to ensure people are aware of, and signed up to, the Priority Service Register.
Guidance to local authorities on best practice in using the Household Support Fund (HSF) to deliver free boiler repairs (where ECO criteria are not met), providing warm packs and financial support on non-means-tested benefits (e.g. ESA).
Work with charities and local authorities to increase the provision of energy advice (for example, single local point of contact for those struggling) and to develop guidance on how social prescribing could be used to help tackle fuel poverty.

Working with landlords, the Government could also support tenants in fuel poverty through:

Introducing a social rent cap, alongside ring-fenced funding to social landlords so that energy efficiency improvements are not sacrificed in the event of supply chain costs increasing.
Introducing a private sector rent freeze (similar to that introduced by the Scottish Government).
Urging local authorities to ensure landlords comply with existing private rented sector regulations – highlighting that enforcing these regulations is cost-neutral in the long term.

ENDS

[1] Fuel poverty levels estimated by the End Fuel Poverty Coalition. For methodology and assumptions visit: https://www.endfuelpoverty.org.uk/price-cap-methodology/.

£14bn made up of:

– £325 to c.8m households – £2.6bn

– £150 to c.16m disabled households – £2.4bn

– £20/week = £1040/year to c.8m households = £8.3bn

– Additional £150 for c.4m off gas households = £600m

– WHD ask = up to £160m

Full details of Warm This Winter are briefing available on request.

[2] Analysis by End Fuel Poverty Coalition on energy prices, full charts available on request.

[3] Warm this Winter is a new campaign demanding the government acts now to help tackle rising energy bills this winter and to ensure energy is affordable for everyone in the future. It is supported by leading anti-poverty and environmental organisations, including Save the Children, WWF and the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.

[4] The Government could do this by issuing a directive to energy firms and Ofgem instructing them to comply with the terms and conditions of pre-payment meter installations, with stringent enforcement and financial penalty for non-compliance. Given that installing these meters severely limits the amount of energy which can be used by these groups, it cannot be possible that installation of PPMs this winter meets the terms of Ofgem rules that PPMs can only be installed if it is “safe and reasonably practicable” to do so.

Electricity markets must be fairly priced for consumers

The End Fuel Poverty Coalition has responded to the Government’s Review of Electricity Market Arrangements with a call that reform must harness the benefits of net zero, reduce risks of price volatility and deliver a secure supply to consumers.

The Consultation closed on 10 October and among the issues up for discussion was how the cost of electricity is determined.

Currently, the energy market is underpinned by “marginal pricing” – meaning that the price per unit (kWh) of electricity is determined by the last energy source delivered onto the grid to meet demand in any given half hour period.

In practice, this is often the cost of gas power station produced electricity, not renewable energy. Yet, renewables make up the biggest proportion of the energy mix (38.7%, BEIS) and are nine times cheaper than gas-fired power stations.

Therefore the Coalition’s response urged the Government to unlink the cost of energy from gas:

As the UK transitions away from fossil fuels, the cost of natural gas, coal and oil should no longer be the dominant factor in determining the price consumers pay for their electricity.

It is crucial that consumers reap the benefits of cheaper renewable electricity sources and no longer have their unit rates determined by volatile fossil fuel prices.

Therefore, we support reforms to the marginal pricing system as long as the Government devises a mechanism for ensuring this provides a reduction in consumer costs and maintains consistency of supply.

In its response, the Coalition welcomed plans to reform the energy market and the Government’s commitment to reliability and affordability.

However, the Coalition adds that the Government “must ensure the needs of vulnerable consumers – and those already in fuel poverty – are better accounted for in these plans.”

Given concerns about possible energy blackouts this winter, the consultation response calls for decarbonisation of the energy grid, security of supply and lower costs for consumers to ensure households are protected from wholesale price volatility. The Coalition added that:

Demand must always be matched by supply, particularly for the most vulnerable consumers such as isolated rural communities and those relying on life saving medical equipment.

The response calls for the Government to successfully utilise the UK’s extensive renewable energy resources and deliver them to consumers through the electricity grid so to help mitigate price volatility and ensure we have a more secure energy future.

Part of this is ensuring that the country harnesses the power of renewables like wind and solar. But the consultation response also calls for measures to avoid continued reliance on fossil fuel backups to meet peak demand by improving the UK’s energy storage capacity.

Blackouts an intolerable situation say campaigners

Commenting on reports that the UK may be subject to rolling black outs or enforced energy cuts, a spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition commented:

We need to ensure we have enough supply to help the most vulnerable.

People such as the disabled and elderly or those using respirators, can’t just turn off their energy use. They are already in fuel poverty and keeping usage to a minimum, so it will be life threatening in some situations.

While there may be some scope for some households to reduce usage and save energy, we should not be encouraging self-disconnection or forcing people to live in cold damp homes.

The Government needs to realise that its obsession with fossil fuels has led us to this point and increasing our reliance on them is not the way to end the energy crisis.

This intolerable situation shows that the faster we move to renewables and an improved energy market, the better.

We need a plan to improve energy efficiency, develop more sustainable ways of keeping people warm every winter and for a long term shift away from gas and onto more renewable energy.

Homes to see energy prices surge overnight

As the fall-out continues from the Chancellor’s mini-Budget, new analysis of the impact of the Energy Price Guarantee has revealed a stark winter facing millions of people.

The Government’s plan only caps the cost per unit that households pay, with actual bills still determined by how much energy is consumed.

The End Fuel Poverty Coalition calculates that the combined electricity and gas unit cost of energy will surge for households by between 23% and 27% overnight on Friday. [1]

The level of surge depends on the type of payment method and where people live in the country.

When standing charges are also included in the analysis, those on standard credit will pay 12% more and those on pre-payment meters 11% more than those on direct debit.

While the Energy Bills Support Scheme will lower peoples bills by GBP400 in the short-term, this saving expires in April 2023 creating a fresh hike in people’s bills. For households on benefits, the additional support they have had since May 2022 will also expire early in 2023 making the impact even more severe. [2]

Campaigners have urged the public to take meter readings tonight and submit them to their energy suppliers to ensure they do not incur additional costs caused by the increased unit prices from 1 October 2022.

In addition, the End Fuel Poverty Coalition has urged the Government to go further in support for energy efficiency measures.

In last week’s mini-Budget, over GBP1bn additional funding was pledged to improve insulation of peoples’ homes over the next three years. New estimates show that this falls far short of the additional GBP5bn energy efficiency investment needed.

Meanwhile, the number of UK households in fuel poverty will increase from 7 million from 1 October to nearer 8m from 1 April 2023 as the Energy Bills Support Scheme runs out.

Frazer Scott, CEO of Energy Action Scotland, commented:

This week, every household across the UK must make sure it submits a meter reading to their energy firm to avoid paying a penny more than they absolutely have to when prices go up on 1 October.

Fuel poverty is at record levels, levels of energy efficiency improvements are simply too low to provide respite and financial support is just a sticking plaster on the deepest of wounds.

As unit costs for electricity and gas push bills higher still in October, communities will suffer and take years to recover. Meanwhile the impact of fuel poverty will be felt on the NHS and social care system and lives will be needlessly lost.

Asthma + Lung UK has recently seen calls to the charity’s helpline from people needing advice for help with their finances or benefits soar by 89% [3]. Dr Andrew Whittamore, Clinical Lead at Asthma + Lung UK and a practising GP, said:

Winter is the deadliest season for people with lung conditions. Cold homes are very dangerous for people with lung conditions because they provide the perfect environment for respiratory infections to thrive.

This situation is untenable and Asthma + Lung UK is urging the government to provide targeted financial support to help people with lung conditions with the rising cost of bills and living.

Tessa Khan, director of Uplift which is part of the Warm This Winter campaign, said:

The government’s massive energy bill bailout is costing us a fortune but doesn’t fix the problem at its root: millions of people will still be forced into impossible choices by soaring gas prices and still we have no credible plan from the government to wean the UK off volatile fossil fuels.

With homegrown renewables now nine times cheaper than UK gas, it is 100% in the national interest to accelerate all forms of cheap, renewable energy so that we don’t find ourselves facing the same energy bill crisis in years to come.

Rhi Hughes, Community Engagement Manager, South West London Law Centres said:

All of us will have a lack of control this winter. It won’t be a case of ‘well, I just won’t put the heating on’ or ‘I will use minimum electricity today’ to get us out of this. Although cutting down fuel use will help, our standing charges are going to sharply increase. If we can’t top up our pre-payment meters we will be getting into debt with our service charges and that debt will keep growing.

Such a range of households are going to be hit so hard by the increase. Homeowners in homes that need repairs have leaks, windows that don’t shut, doors that don’t close and they are just going to freeze as they don’t have the money to fix the problem or to put the heating on.

Some tenants are forced to live in such bad condition housing that there is nothing they can do to keep heat in as there are large cracks in walls or ceilings. It is the responsibility of the landlords to fix these issues but they don’t – especially housing association and council tenants. These large authorities are exasperating the crisis for the people they are paid rent by.

A spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, added:

The Government has created a double dose of pain for households. Many will be hit with the rising energy bills immediately, with another dose of pain inflicted when the financial support runs out by April 2023.

We need action now to reassure people that support will continue next year and urgent action to improve the energy efficiency of our homes into the future.

Notes

[1]

Price cap unit rates chart
All financial numbers are quoted in p
DIRECT DEBIT
	Cost from 1 Oct 22	Cost until 30 Sep 22	INCREASE FROM SUMMER 22
GAS UNIT (kwh)	10.3	7.37	39.76%
GAS SC	28.49	27.22	4.67%
ELEC UNIT	34	28.34	19.97%
ELEC SC	46.36	45.34	2.25%
1 day of both fuels & 1 kwh used of both fuels	119.15	108.27	10.05%
1 unit of each	44.3	35.71	24.05%


PRE PAYMENT METERS
	From 1 Oct	Until 1 Oct	INCREASE
GAS UNIT (kwh)	10.63	7.36	44.43%
GAS SC	37.51	37.28	0.62%
ELEC UNIT (kwh)	33.08	28.11	17.68%
ELEC SC	51.41	50.27	2.27%
1 day of both fuels & 1 kwh used of both fuels	132.63	123.02	7.81%
1 unit of each	43.71	35.47	23.23%
Uplift from DD	13.48	14.75
% Uplift from DD	11.31%	13.62%


STANDARD CREDIT
	From 1 Oct	Until 1 Oct	INCREASE
GAS UNIT (kwh)	11.12	7.76	43.30%
GAS SC	33.54	32	4.81%
ELEC UNIT (kwh)	36.8	29.85	23.28%
ELEC SC	52.4	51.16	2.42%
1 day of both fuels & 1 kwh used of both fuels	133.86	120.77	10.84%
1 unit of each	47.92	37.61	27.41%
Uplift from DD	14.71	12.5
% Uplift from DD	12.35%	11.55%
Original data unit cost source: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/what-are-the-price-cap-unit-rates-/ Combinations, increases and uplifts calculated by End Fuel Poverty Coalition

[2]

Average household bills under Ofgem Price Cap () and Energy Price Guarantee (*). All financial numbers quoted are in GBP.	“Average household (hh)”	Average hh increase	Those hh getting max Govt support, average hh rate	Those hh getting max Govt support, % increase
Oct-21*	1277		1277
Apr-22*	1971	54.35%	1571	23.02%
Oct-22**	2100	6.54%	1700	8.21%
Apr-23**	2500	19.05%	2500	47.06%
Increase Winter 2021/22 to Summer 2023		96%		96%
Increase Winter 2021/22 to Winter 2022/23		64%		33%

[3] Asthma + Lung UK internal figures. Comparison August 2021 to August 2022. Website traffic on these topics also surged year-on-year by 63%.

Mini-Budget minimal on help for those in fuel poverty

As the Chancellor unveiled his mini-Budget, there was little immediate support for households in fuel poverty. However, some positive moves on energy efficiency and renewables have been given a qualified welcomed by campaigners.

A spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition commented:

The Chancellor’s mini-Budget was especially minimal on the support needed to keep people warm this winter.

Even with the measures pledged by the Government so far, there is now just a week to go until energy bills increase by 64% compared to last winter.

The start of the Chancellor’s ‘new era’ will see 7 million households left facing desperate fuel poverty this winter.

Millions of people will spend the winter struggling in cold damp homes. This will cause health problems for many and place more strain on the NHS and social care system.

Millions will face additional hardship due to the unfair standing charges regime and being forced onto more expensive pre-payment meters.

Hidden away in the small print of the Chancellor’s Plan for Growth is an announcement to expand the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) – which requires energy companies to install energy saving measures in fuel poor homes – with a £1bn boost over three years, starting from next April.

The new funding will be targeted at those most vulnerable, and made available for the least efficient homes in lower council tax bands. In addition, the government will also ‘imminently open applications for up to £2.1 billion over the next two years to support local authorities, housing associations, schools and hospitals invest in energy efficiency and renewable heating.’

While the ECO expansion will provide vital relief for the households that stand to benefit, alone it cannot shift the dial on the resilience of UK households to energy price shocks now or in future.

Experts at E3G estimate it is about a fifth of the amount needed to be spent on green building measures and the opportunity was missed to meet the Home Upgrade Grant Conservative manifesto pledge – which is still £1.4 billion short of what should have been committed to 2025.

Juliet Phillips, Senior Policy Advisor at E3G, commented:

The cold and leaky nature of Britain’s homes and buildings have left families sharply exposed to volatile international fossil fuel markets and spiralling energy bills.

Today’s small top-up to expand energy efficiency support is welcome step which will help cut household bills and boost the UK’s energy security.

We hope to see the government go further and faster to unleash the full potential that energy efficiency has to offer to protect UK households from future energy shocks.

Members of the Warm This Winter campaign, Possible, have also highlighted how the mini-Budget appears to have positive news for renewables with an end to the effective ban on building on-shore wind in England.

However, there was little detail on how the nation’s books will be balanced. A spokesperson for Greenpeace commented:

Failing to properly tax the obscene profits of fossil fuel giants and encouraging bankers to get richer is reckless and unfair.

Rather than seeking to deregulate and attack those on benefits, the new Chancellor should be looking for ways to raise taxes on those profiting from the crisis.

This could help fund emergency support for households, and cover the vital investment needed in home insulation to help cut our energy bills and climate emissions once and for all.

Ministers are ignoring common-sense, win-win solutions to bring down bills and carbon emissions – things like stopping energy waste, heat-pumps and solar panels.

Instead of boosting the economy through investments in green infrastructure, public services and skills training, the government’s plan is little more than a charter for fossil fuel profits and casino capitalism.

Earlier this week, Age UK analysis found that from October 2022, around three in ten older households in England will be living in fuel poverty, including 1.3m lower income older households.

Caroline Abrahams, Charity Director at Age UK, commented:

Our new analysis shows that the Government’s relief package will not do enough to prevent approaching two million more pensioners from being plunged into fuel poverty in a couple of weeks’ time.

Most worrying of all, in excess of half a million of them are already living on lower incomes, so they will be in an impossible position financially, unless the Government does more to help.

However hard they try their income is not going to stretch far enough to cover the essentials any more.

Can you imagine how terrifying this prospect is if you are an older person on a low fixed income who has just about managed so far? Once they realise what a deep financial hole they are about to be in our biggest concern is that some will cut their spending to such a degree that it puts them at risk.

The Chartered Institute of Housing has also recently written to the Prime Minister for urgent government action to:

Bring forward the planned uprating of benefits from next April to this October
Limit deductions from Universal Credit for prior overpayments/sanctions
Remove the benefit cap and two-child limit
Restore local housing allowance rates to at least the 30th percentile and return to annual uprating
Prevent energy companies from forcibly switching customers to prepayment meters
Commit to bring forward additional funding for energy efficiency measures in homes

Notes

The average household bill in winter 2021/22 was GBP1277. This has increased to GBP2,100 for winter 2022/23, taking into account the support promised so far. For some of the most vulnerable households, the increase will be limited to an average household bill of GBP1,700 this winter – still representing a 33% increase year-on-year. Please note, the Energy Price Guarantee caps the unit cost of energy, not the total bill.

In winter 2021/22, the End Fuel Poverty Coalition estimates 4.6m UK households were in fuel poverty (based on official definitions). This will rise to 6.99m in winter 2022/23.