Tag: Warm This Winter

Chancellor in last chance saloon to fix UK’s broken energy system

Campaigners from Warm this Winter are urging the Chancellor to back real measures to fix the UK’s energy system, with a rally outside Parliament timed to coincide with the ‘mini-budget’.

Despite the UK Government’s Energy Price Guarantee, it is estimated that 7 million households – over 16 million people – across the UK will still be in fuel poverty this winter.

As well as more targeted support on bills, the coalition is calling for a coherent plan to reduce energy costs permanently through a national rollout of home insulation and a massive acceleration of renewable energy, which is now nine times cheaper than UK gas.

As the Chancellor has previously conceded, doubling down on domestic gas production, whether in the North Sea or fracking, will not lower bills.

On Friday, MPs are being invited to find out more about the campaign’s demands at an event being held in Portcullis House.

This week, more than 70 organisations called for more measures to improve energy efficiency. From energy firms to climate campaigners and from charities to professional bodies, the groups all urged the Chancellor to take action to help people keep their homes warm.

A spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition said:

This is the last chance saloon for the Chancellor to provide the support needed by 7 million households to stay warm this winter.

Without this help millions will face 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.

We need to see additional short-term measures to provide additional financial help to the most vulnerable.

But we also need to see the Chancellor investing in ending fuel poverty for good.

This can only be done by increasing support for improving the energy efficiency of people’s homes and backing Britain’s generation of cheap and clean renewable energy.

Alethea Warrington, campaigns manager at climate charity Possible, said:

The government has the chance to end the energy crisis and get the UK off gas for good. Onshore wind is now ten times cheaper than gas power, but new wind projects are still blocked in England despite being extremely popular.

A real plan for growth would tax the grotesque profits of fossil fuel companies rather than handing them hundreds of millions of pounds of our money. Then the government should get on with delivering cheap renewable energy and warmer homes.

Tessa Khan, director of Uplift, which campaigns for a just transition away from fossil fuels, said:

In every constituency across the country, many households and businesses are looking at their energy bills with dread, even with this government support, knowing that this situation is unsustainable.

We urge MPs to push for measures that will help people this winter and make sure the country is in a better position in winters to come.

Even if it were possible, more domestic gas won’t lower bills. All it will do is increase industry profits and lock us into an unaffordable energy source for longer than necessary.

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.

Its demands of government are:

  1. Emergency support now: Provide a new package of financial support to people who, without additional urgent action, will be on the front-line of poverty this winter.
  2. Help to upgrade homes: Launch a properly-funded programme of home upgrades and insulation across the UK to bring down bills and prevent energy waste.
  3. Cheap energy: More than triple the amount of renewable energy in the UK by 2030, including wind and solar generated in harmony with nature, so that we can permanently lower bills.
  4. Free us from oil and gas: Stop opening up new oil and gas fields so that we can escape our dependence on volatile fossil fuels.

Notes to editors

[1] Members of the Warm this Winter coalition will stage a ‘mini-rally’ in Parliament Square from 12.30-1.30pm, when there will be an opportunity for photographs.

There will also be a drop-in for MPs in Room P, Portcullis House from 10-12pm, where will MPs will be able to be introduced to and able to ask questions about the campaign.

Fuel poverty levels set to rocket as petition passes 100,000 mark

Over 12 million households (42%) across the UK face fuel poverty this winter, according to predictions from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.

The estimates take into account support announced by the Government so far and are historically reflective of the definitions of fuel poverty used in official statistics.

From the price cap rise on 1 October, the estimates show that 21 million people in around 9 million homes (32%) will be affected this winter. The figures are then set to grow to around 28 million people in 12 million UK households (42%) from January 2023 unless urgent action is taken by the Government.

The figures come as over 110,000 people have already signed the Warm This Winter petition calling for immediate government action.

The petition was only launched last Friday as the Ofgem price cap for this winter was confirmed. The Warm this Winter campaign demands that the government provides more emergency money for people this winter, funding to help everyone cut their bills with better insulation, and rapidly moves the country away from expensive gas and onto cheaper, renewable energy.

The figures come as a new report by University College London’s Institute of Health Equity (IHE) predicts “a humanitarian crisis’ for children stuck in cold homes and reveals the public health crisis fuel poverty will cause.

A spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition commented:

The IHE report backs up our worst fears about just how devastating the winter energy bills crisis will be.

The public is clamouring to be kept Warm this Winter and we need to see more emergency money for people this winter, funding to help everyone cut their bills with better insulation, and a rapid move away from expensive gas and onto cheaper, renewable energy.

Without urgent Government action, the impact of rising levels of fuel poverty on our nation will be profound and devastating.

Meanwhile, the Resolution Foundation has warned that the next prime minister’s time in office looks set to be dominated by the “terrifying” prospect of the biggest squeeze in living standards for a century.

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

While the leadership candidates fall back on the failed fossil fuel solutions of the past, the public are demanding fresh thinking.

The thousands of people who have signed the Warm This Winter petition are proof that the public want both short term and long term solutions to the fuel poverty crisis.

We need to reject expensive, dirty, fossil fuels and embrace renewable energy and improved energy efficiency of buildings, alongside immediate financial support this winter.

Ruth London from Fuel Poverty Action, commented:

Energy producers and suppliers are making record profits from putting up prices to a level that millions will struggle to pay.

The result will be many thousands of deaths in cold damp homes, widespread health crises, cold and hungry children unable to play or do homework, and older people who can’t be discharged from hospital because their homes are not fit to live in.

The present pricing framework is upside down: the poorest customers pay the highest prices. Our Energy For All proposal would reverse this: each household will receive enough energy to cover its basic needs, paid for by higher prices for profligate energy use, and reversing the flow of taxpayers money to fossil fuel profiteers.

The spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition added:

These predictions represent figures we may expect to go on to see reported in official statistics.

The households affected in these numbers all have a real risk of making daily economic sacrifices that compromise their standard of living, with many of them at risk of health complications caused by living in a cold damp home.

Notes

Methodology, assumptions and definitions available at https://www.endfuelpoverty.org.uk/price-cap-methodology/.

Regional figures related to this measure will be published in September 2022. Millions more are also set to suffer based on more general measures of fuel poverty and fuel stress used by some academics and campaigners. The latest estimates from the University of York show that on a measure of 10% of income being spent on energy bills the numbers are 54% of households from October rising to 78% of households in January 2023. However, this is not the definition used by the different UK governments.

Energy bills campaigners send message to leadership debates

Campaigners will take to the streets of Darlington ahead of the next Conservative Leadership Debate to demand urgent government action on the energy bills crisis.

New figures from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition show that around 36,000 people in over 9,000 homes will be in fuel poverty from 1 October in Darlington alone.

Now campaigners have formed a new group, Warm This Winter, to ask the leadership candidates to take the issue seriously.

They will be asking attendees at the event in Hippodrome to raise the energy bills crisis with Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak and ask them to commit to doing whatever it takes to avoid a nightmare winter for millions of people.

Local organiser, Kendra Ullyart, who is also coordinator of Darlington Friends of the Earth, said:

We all deserve to be warm in our own homes but right now soaring energy prices mean that millions of people are struggling to pay their bills, never mind this winter when costs will climb even higher.

The worrying part is that gas prices are predicted to stay high until at least 2030.In 2020, there were already thousands of households in Darlington living in fuel poverty, but rocketing energy costs mean there are now many more who need urgent, long-term solutions.

That’s why Darlington Friends of the Earth is adding its voice to the Warm This Winter campaign, to demand emergency financial support for those who will need it most this winter, as well as funding for a massive insulation scheme to cut the nation’s bills. Moving the country away from expensive gas and onto cheaper, renewable energy will also help to protect us all from future price shocks.

The public has grasped the scale and seriousness of the energy crisis, and deserves a leader who will act in our best interests. Tonight we hope Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss will set out credible plans to ensure everyone stays warm this winter, and for years to come.

A spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, added:

Across the North East hundreds of thousands of people will find themselves in fuel poverty this winter, with millions more having to make difficult decisions about household finances this winter.

We congratulate the campaigners for taking action in Darlington. The Warm this Winter campaign simply must succeed in ensuring the government helps those people who need it today and fixes the UK’s broken energy system for good.

Warm This Winter is a new campaign to ensure that families are helped this winter and to put the country in the best possible position to avoid future shocks and save money in the long-term.

It is calling on the government to provide more direct financial support to vulnerable households now, a national programme of energy efficiency for households to cut waste, a rollout of cheaper onshore renewables, and an end to the development of new oil and gas fields so that we are not locked into volatile fossil fuels for longer than is necessary.

Further action is planned for hustings in Birmingham, Norwich and London. To get involved, email info@endfuelpoverty.org.uk.