PRE-PAYMENT meters are forcing people to live in cold and damp homes, more than half of whom have poor health or disabilities, research by campaigners revealed today.
Some 64 per cent of customers on pre-payment meters are vulnerable, even before the predicted cold snap kicks in and increases energy bills, with 51 per cent having health conditions or disabilities, according to the figures collected by YouGov for the Warm This Winter campaign.
More than 10 per cent of customers on those meters have effectively self-disconnected by massively reducing their energy use.
More than 30 per cent of such customers now live in cold damp homes, more than the national average of 19 per cent.
Among the people on pre-payment meters and classified as vulnerable, 14 per cent are disconnecting and 36 per cent now living in a cold, damp home.
Publication of the research coincides with recent reports revealing that energy firms have secured almost 500,000 court warrants to instal pre-payment meters in the homes of customers in debt since the end of the coronavirus lockdown.
HUNDREDS of renters protested outside letting agents in six London boroughs on Saturday to demand Britain implement an emergency rent freeze similar to that of the Scottish government.
The renters from the London Renters Union (LRU) were also highlighting the “human cost of the rental crisis” the “key role” letting agents play in “gouging rents well above inflation,” the LRU said in a press release.
The organisation has reported an average rent increase of 20.5 per cent or £3,378 per year. Those numbers are based on 150 rent rises which have been reported to the union since September 20.
Activists held protest in Harrods, the British Museum and Scottish Power headquarters today (3 December), as part of national demonstrationsagainst surging energy bills and fuel poverty.
Don’t Pay UK, Fuel Poverty Action, Just Stop Oil and others groups held a series of what they describe as ‘warm-up’ protests.
Activists entered the British Museum’s great hall – the largest indoor public square in Europe – where they also protested against the Bloomsbury venue’s sponsorship links with oil giant BP.
…
Just Stop Oil supporters cosy up at Harrods on Fuel Poverty Day of Action
Image: Just Stop Oil, Rich Feldgate
Just Stop Oil supporters have occupied beds and sofas in Harrods to demand that the government Just Stop Fuel Poverty by insulating homes and ending our reliance on expensive, dangerous and dirty fossil fuels.
At around 1pm, 4 Just Stop Oil supporters briefly occupied beds and sofas in Harrods department store on Brompton Road in central London and displayed signs reading “Just Stop Oil, Just Start Insulation”, “Just Stop Fuel Poverty” and “Oil Equals Death”. They were rapidly escorted out of the store by around 20 security guards.
Image: just Stop Oil.
Just Stop Oil supporters are acting today in solidarity with Fuel Poverty Action’s Energy For All campaign and the Don’t Pay UK campaign. The action is one of several Warm-Ups taking place across the UK in towns and cities including Glasgow, Liverpool, Bristol and London in support of the Warm This Winter coalition’s Day of Action on fuel poverty.
A spokesperson for Just Stop Oil said
“This government is allowing ordinary people to starve and freeze this winter as greedy energy companies squeeze every last penny out of us. The health service is in crisis, workers’ wages are being squeezed, and nurses are using food banks. Austerity is a political choice and the cost of living crisis is an unprovoked attack on ordinary people.
“Worse still, rocketing energy prices are funding the companies who are torching the climate. Rishi Sunak’s government plans to allow over 100 new UK fossil fuel projects. They are signing our death warrants. New oil and gas is criminal, an act of genocide against billions of people in the poorest countries on earth, and an act of war against the young.
“If the government really cared about ordinary people, as they keep claiming, we’d see an emergency response to the climate and cost of living crisis. Everyone would have their basic energy needs met and bills would be shrunk through insulation, renewables and free public transport, paid for by the fossil fuel companies and the rich.”
National Energy Action estimates that as a result of rising energy costs, around 2.2 million more people have fallen into fuel poverty this year in the UK raising the total figure to 6.7 million. The chancellor’s decision to further raise the energy price cap in 2023 could see the number of households in fuel poverty rise from the current 7 million this winter to 8.6 million households by next April according to the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.
Thousands have gathered in central London on Saturday to demonstrate against what they called “Tory austerity” and demand an immediate general election.
The protest, called Britain is Broken, has been organised by the People’s Assembly Against Austerity, and is supported by groups including CND, Unite, Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion.
Thousands of people marched in the rain from Embankment to Trafalgar Square in central London.
The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, is under pressure from campaigners, unions and his own MPs to set out plans for “wealth taxes” on the richest in society in order to support public services and help the poorest through the cost of living crisis.
As the government prepares to cut spending to fill an estimated £35bn black hole in the nation’s finances, calls are growing for higher taxes on the super-rich, many of whom have seen their fortunes soar during the pandemic.
Richard Burgon, the Labour MP for Leeds East, said: “While living standards are plummeting for most people, it’s been boom time for the super-rich, whose wealth has soared to record highs in recent years.”
Starmer, who is trying to position his party in the centre ground, has avoided committing to higher taxes on private incomes as Labour seeks to woo the City and businesspeople angry at the damage caused by the Conservatives’ mini-budget. But that approach is causing concern on his backbenches and more widely, with the Greens calling Labour “timid” on wealth.
…
Molly Scott Cato, the Green party’s spokesperson on finance, said: “The Tories have created a big hole the public finances but there is an obvious place to look to fill it: taxing the super-rich. Not only do they have the broadest shoulders but they also increased their wealth during the pandemic because of enforced savings.
“What is more surprising is to find Labour being so timid on wealth taxes. Their proposal to abolish non-dom status will only bring in a few billion while a proper wealth tax could yield tens of billions. We’ve now got two weeks for Labour to remember their egalitarian roots and support loud and growing calls for a wealth tax. Otherwise they will be colluding in the devastating cuts to public services that are being cooked up by the millionaires in Nos 10 and 11 Downing Street.”
