North Staffs Green Party has put its support behind a campaign run jointly by Staffordshire People’s Assembly and North Staffordshire Trades Union Council calling for energy bills to be capped.
Last week energy regulator OFGEM announced that it
would raise the price cap on household energy bills by more than 50%, seeing
costs for the average household rise to £1,277 this winter, on top of a
previous increase of 12% announced in August last year [1].
Attempting to avoid negative publicity at a time when
the government is stumbling from one crisis to the next the Treasury announced measures
to soften the blow of rising energy prices. These included a £200 rebate on
energy bills for every household, this would then be paid back through bills in
subsequent years.
Fuel poverty campaign groups have expressed
disappointment at the measures put in place, a spokesperson for the End Fuel
Poverty Coalition told the Guardian the rise in the price cap would be “be somewhere between devastating and
catastrophic for millions of people across the country, could very quickly wipe
out any support these loans can provide [2]”.
Also speaking to the Guardian Claire Moriarty
chief executive of Citizens Advice said that around the country frontline
advisers were hearing “desperate stories of families living in just one room to
keep warm, people turning off their fridges to save money and others relying on
hot-water bottles instead of heating due to fears about mounting bills.”
A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party
said “the cost-of-living crisis is driving families who are doing all they can
to get by into poverty and in the very worst cases destitution. The package of
measures put forward by the Treasury do not even come close to meeting the
scale of need. There is a very real risk that if action is not taken lives will
be lost”.
The rise to the cap on energy prices comes at a
time when households are facing increasing pressure on their finances. Rising
inflation rates, predicted to be above £% by April next year mean everyone will
be hit by rising prices, but low-income households will be hit hardest due to
having less of a financial ‘buffer’ against unexpected expenses [3].
In January the Green Party put forward a
five-point plan to address rising fuel costs and the impending climate crisis.
The plan calls for emergency grants to help
those at risk of fuel poverty to insulate their homes, an extension to winter
fuel payments, a windfall tax on the profits of oil and as companies, higher
investment in renewable energy and scrapping the proposed increase in National
Insurance payments [4].
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said the
plan represented the “sort of positive
and radical action we need to protect the most vulnerable in society and ensure
that we can all live a more comfortable life, at the same time as taking real
action on climate change to provide longer-term security”
The campaign will see activists take to the
streets across the county to protest against the rise to the price cap and to
call for the government to provide more support to struggling households.
In a statement made on Facebook the organisers
say: “The Government has failed. Join the protests
outside Hanley Bus Station on Lidice Way! Bring friends, workmates, placards,
banners and noise!”
Groups represented at the Stoke-on-Trent protest
include North Staffs Climate Coalition and Stoke XR, other participants will be
announced on the day.
The spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said:
“we stand with the Trades Council, the People’s Assembly and all other groups
involved in calling for an energy policy that leaves nobody out in the cold”.
The protest will take place on Lidice Way,
outside Hanley Bus Station at 13:00pm.
[1]https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/feb/02/energy-bills-rise-ofgem-price-cap
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