Winter poverty looms as energy prices soar and promises fall short
18 November 2024, 14:32 | Updated: 18 November 2024, 14:41
The winter fuel poverty crisis has begun.
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Temperatures are plunging whilst prices remain sky-high. With cold weather on the horizon and snow predicted as early as this week, two million low income pensioners will be at greatest risk, their vulnerability to cold combining with them losing their Winter Fuel Payments. Labour previously forecast about 4000 extra deaths, and the impact on the NHS and care systems is likely to be significant.
Energy regulator Ofgem is announcing that high energy prices will continue right through winter. Bills will stay about 65% above 2020, and the standing charges we have to pay before getting any energy will have doubled. During the election, the new Labour Government promised a £300 bill saving, but since their landslide win, bills have increased further instead. They also promised standing charge reform, but Ofgem continues to drag its feet despite public pressure to end these cruel charges that hit those on low incomes hardest.
UK electricity pricing is especially extreme, set at four times higher than gas. This makes heating and hot water unaffordable for many of the two million homes that don’t have gas or oil, many of them low income pensioners or people in rental flats. The huge electric premium also seriously undermines government efforts to get the rest of us to switch from dirty fossil fuels to cleaner heat pumps.
Our high energy prices are driven by the continued high profits of the energy giants. Total energy firm profits since 2020 have now reached £470 billion, with devastating impacts on millions of households. The case for a fundamental reform of our energy system is now overwhelming, and public support for the Government and the transition to clean energy will be undermined if they fail to deliver the promised bill savings. Continued suffering will increase pressure on Labour to reverse the winter fuel payment cuts or introduce alternative protections like Fuel Poverty Action’s Energy For All guarantee of essential energy.
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Jonathan Bean is the Parliament and Policy Lead at Fuel Poverty Action
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