Rising public anger at the levels of fuel poverty have seen two members of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition call a mass protest on 26 November 2021.
Led by the National Pensioners’ Convention and Fuel Poverty Action, the protest will highlight the excess winter deaths caused by fuel poverty.
Protestors will demand immediate action from the Government to address rising levels of fuel poverty that were failed to to be addressed in Chancellor’s “bleak” Budget earlier this year.
The action will take place in Westminster on 26 November 2021 (12 noon, assemble at George V statue, Old Palace Yard) and after a rally outside Parliament, protesters will march on Downing Street to demand immediate support for those in fuel poverty.
One of the organisers, Ruth London, said:
Deaths from fuel poverty in this wealthy country are not an act of God but an obscenity. They’re a result of deliberate policies on housing, fossil fuels, pensions, benefits, taxes, and wages, that cannot be allowed to stand.
Jan Shortt, General Secretary of the National Pensioners’ Convention said:
No one should die in this country – one of the richest in the world – from the cold related illness in the 21st century. Yet millions of people on low incomes will already be having to choose whether to eat or heat their homes this winter.
We need the Prime Minister to recognise the death penalty awaiting our poorest, oldest and most vulnerable this winter, and personally step in with measures to regulate prices and most importantly help those in need afford the basics he and the more well off take for granted.
A spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition added:
People are so desperate and scared at the prospect of not being able to heat their homes this winter that they are now taking to streets in the hope the Government hears their concerns and takes the urgent economic steps necessary to halt a public health crisis.