Many vulnerable households refrain from using heating due to the high cost of energy, according to the End Fuel Poverty coalition
Nearly 5,000 people died in the UK last winter due to living in cold and damp homes as they could not afford the rising energy costs, the latest report from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition has claimed.
The surge in excess deaths underscores the need to upgrade the UK’s housing stock and implement measures to bring down energy bills, the coalition has warned.
The End Fuel Poverty Coalition includes Greenpeace, WWF, Green Alliance, Save the Children, and Age UK, among others.
Meanwhile, a study by the Warm This Winter campaign noted that excess winter deaths climb when the temperature in the UK drops below four degrees Celsius.
According to Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, as many as 8.3 million adults in the UK are living in poorly insulated, cold, damp homes and, as temperatures drop, conditions go from being uncomfortable to “downright dangerous.”
“While households struggle, ministers are sitting on their hands and leaving matters of life and death to chance. Instead of taking action on energy bills, they have allowed energy firms to restart using the courts to force households onto prepayment meters and have now ruled out reform to energy tariffs to help those most in need,” he told Euronews on Friday.
Meanwhile, with energy bills set to remain far above pre-pandemic levels this year and beyond, such health dangers are expected to persist this winter following a series of cold snaps, experts warn.
The coalition criticized the British government for a lack of “meaningful” action to help households struggling with elevated energy tariffs. Experts noted that officials “would rather play politics with a ridiculous Oil & Gas Licensing Bill that will do nothing to improve energy security or lower bills.”
“We are very concerned at the level of disinterest shown by the government in the welfare of older people at a time when the temperature is dropping well below freezing,” Jan Shortt, General Secretary of the National Pensioners’ Convention, which is part of the Warm This Winter campaign, said.
The coalition’s report also censured the UK government for its refusal to set up a “help to repay” scheme for those in energy debt and also for its unwillingness to implement a proposed emergency energy tariff aimed at bringing down energy bills for vulnerable households.
Wtf, Canada is like 90 a year and America is 1.3k. What the hell is happening in the UK
AFAIK, basically they're having to buy way more expensive liquefied gas all the way from their friendly ally, the US, rather than the cheap energy they could get from evil evil Russia. People have been pointing at the Cost of Living crisis in the UK since before the pandemic, but shit really hit the fan once they sanctioned Russia and blew up their own pipeline.
Another point is that homes in the UK are so badly insulated you on average have to use three times as much energy to keep it warm than in Germany for example. And the people who are most unlikely to afford heating will live in the worst insulated houses.