Energy poverty deaths will go 'through the roof' this winter, says National Energy Action
1 April 2022, 18:33
Energy poverty deaths will go 'through the roof' this year
National Energy Action Chief Executive Adam Scorer has told LBC that the deaths of those living in cold homes this winter will go "through the roof" as the energy price cap rises.
It comes as Brits woke this morning to a massive hike on the limit they can be charged for energy, whilst MPs awoke to a £2,000 pay rise.
Experts have issued stark warnings that people in the UK will starve, freeze and could consider suicide as they desperately struggle to pay soaring energy bills from this month.
Today Ofgem raised the price cap of gas and electricity, seeing it soar by 54 per cent this morning to £1,971 for an average home to compared to £1,277 yesterday. Experts predict it will be around £2,700-a-year from October.
The huge jump in price sparked the founder of energy company Utilita, Bill Bullen, to urge households to cut their energy usage and behaviour by layering up and insulating their homes.
'I'm so chilly today I've actually got a hot water bottle.'
The Chief Executive of National Energy Action told Andrew Pierce: "It's not about choices anymore. It's about not heating your home, it's about not heating water, it's about not buying warm clothes, it's about not doing all those things that we would regard as the basics of life.
"The Chancellor so far has decided to go broad and shallow, try and do a little bit for everybody. I think that's a mistake, I think he'll have to reverse gear and find ways of going deep and targeted to help those people who are in the greatest jeopardy."
"When we get to the cold weather, the combination of winter, cold homes and unaffordable prices means that people die," Mr Scorer continued.
"We have 10,000 people who die every winter in the UK because they can't afford to heat their home. To be honest we're quite phlegmatic about that as a number. We won't be so phlegmatic this winter when that number goes through the roof because people will not be heating their homes, and those who are susceptible to the cold will perish."
