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Unions welcome Labour action to cut industrial energy costs – but Unite presses for public ownership

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unions-welcome-labour-action-cut-industrial-energy-costs-unite-presses-public-ownership

 A view of the Little Cheyne Court Wind Farm amongst existing electricity pylons on the Romney Marsh in Kent

MORE than 7,000 manufacturing businesses will have up to 25 per cent cut from their electricity costs under the government’s 10-year industrial strategy.

Under a new British Industrial Competitiveness Scheme announced today, they will be exempted from levies on bills including the renewables obligation, feed-in tariffs and the capacity market from 2027 — reducing bills by up to £40 per megawatt hour.

Around 500 of the most energy-intensive firms, including the steel industry, will also see their network charges cut with bigger energy discounts, along with measures to speed up the time it can take to connect new factories and projects to the energy grid.

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Unite general secretary Sharon Graham welcomed the moves to cut energy costs, but said: “Unite would like to have seen the government go further.

“Our energy system is broken beyond repair; it will never function in the interests of business and consumers until it is brought back into public ownership.

“That must start with the National Grid to ensure industry can get the power it needs when it needs it and is not left waiting forever for new connections.”

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Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unions-welcome-labour-action-cut-industrial-energy-costs-unite-presses-public-ownership

Continue ReadingUnions welcome Labour action to cut industrial energy costs – but Unite presses for public ownership

National Grid’s £2bn profits ‘lay bare’ Britain’s broken energy system, campaigners say

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/national-grid-2bn-profits-lay-bare-britain-broken-energy-system-campaigners-say

‘It is time our energy infrastructure was brought back into public ownership,’ Unite general secretary says

CAMPAIGNERS intensified their demands for energy infrastructure to be brought back into full public ownership today after the National Grid posted a 14 per cent increase in underlying profits.

The firm, which builds and runs power grids and cables across Britain, reported an underlying operating profit of £2.05 billion for the six months until September 30, surpassing £1.8bn in the same period last year.

The grid charges energy suppliers for network use. Costs are then passed on to consumers through their bills, which rose by another 10 per cent last month.

In 2023, National Grid shareholders received £1.6bn in dividends, while six million households remained trapped in fuel poverty amid skyrocketing costs.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said National Grid’s profits “lay bare” Britain’s broken energy system.

She said: “Energy profiteers like National Grid are extracting cash for overseas shareholders through ever more expensive bills.

“It is time our energy infrastructure was brought back into public ownership so that the British people and economy benefit rather than foreign wealth funds.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/national-grid-2bn-profits-lay-bare-britain-broken-energy-system-campaigners-say

Continue ReadingNational Grid’s £2bn profits ‘lay bare’ Britain’s broken energy system, campaigners say

Pensioners to mobilise against cuts to winter fuel payments

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/pensioners-mobilise-against-cuts-winter-fuel-payments Many articles from the Morning Star today

An elderly woman counting loose change

TRADE unionists and pensioners will mobilise on Monday to demand the government reverse its axing of the winter fuel allowance.

Unite, the National Pensioners Convention (NPC) and the Scottish Pensioners’ Forum will head a mass demonstration outside Parliament calling for the allowance to be restored to all pensioners.

During Labour’s annual conference last month, Unite defeated the party leadership when it won support for a motion demanding the restoration of the allowance and the introduction of a wealth tax to fund it.

The union is campaigning under the slogan “Defend the Winter Fuel Payment.”

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The government’s winter fuel policy needs to be reversed. Picking the pockets of pensioners is not a tough choice — it is a mistake

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/pensioners-mobilise-against-cuts-winter-fuel-payments Many articles from the Morning Star today

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Continue ReadingPensioners to mobilise against cuts to winter fuel payments

Labour Conference 2024: ‘Britain needs investment, not austerity mark two’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/britain-needs-investment-not-austerity-mark-two

Delegates defy Starmer by voting to reject the callous cut to pensioners’ winter fuel allowance after Unite chief’s barn-storming speech

LABOUR conference defied Sir Keir Starmer today and voted to reject the callous cut to pensioners’ winter fuel allowance.

Delegates backed a motion from Unite the union demanding that the government “reverse the introduction of means-testing for the winter fuel allowance.”

It also urged Labour to scrap the “fiscal rules which prevent borrowing to invest” and introduce a wealth tax on the top 1 per cent and an excess profits tax.

In a barn-storming speech, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham recalled how the 1945 Labour government had rebuilt the country despite debt ratios three times the level of today.

She said: “People simply do not understand, I do not understand, how our new Labour government can cut the winter fuel allowance for pensioners and leave the super-rich untouched.

“This is not what people voted for. It is the wrong decision and needs to be reversed.

“We are the sixth-richest economy in the world. We have the money. Britain needs investment, not austerity mark two. We won’t get any gold badge for shaving peanuts off our debt.

“These fiscal rules are self-imposed and the decision to keep them is like hanging a noose around our necks.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/britain-needs-investment-not-austerity-mark-two

Continue ReadingLabour Conference 2024: ‘Britain needs investment, not austerity mark two’

Starmer Risks Conference Rebuke on Winter Fuel Cut as Unite plans to force a vote

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmer-risks-conference-rebuke-winter-fuel-cut-unite-plans-force-vote

Unite’s leader Sharon Graham

SIR KEIR STARMER is facing a possible Labour rebuke over his deeply unpopular plans to cut winter fuel benefits for pensioners.

The party’s largest affiliate, Unite, will try to force a vote on the issue at Labour’s conference, which opens in Liverpool on Sunday.

Unite’s motion also calls for the scrapping of the Treasury’s fiscal rules, which have placed the new government’s spending plans in a strait-jacket.

It urges Labour to borrow more to invest in public services and infrastructure and says that “workers and communities voted for change — a better future, not just better management and not cuts to the winter fuel allowance.”

Calling for a U-turn on the winter fuel cut, the motion added: “We need a vision where pensioners are not the first to face a new wave of cuts and those that profited from decades of deregulation finally help to rebuild Britain.”

The attitude of other affiliated unions will be critical to the success of the motion, which will have to leap procedural hurdles to be debated, something submissions from large unions usually accomplish.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmer-risks-conference-rebuke-winter-fuel-cut-unite-plans-force-vote

Continue ReadingStarmer Risks Conference Rebuke on Winter Fuel Cut as Unite plans to force a vote