The government must act to protect those on limited incomes from unaffordable price rises
Even before global energy prices began to soar last spring, too many people in Britain could not afford to keep their homes warm in a cold winter. This year – amid a wider cost-of-living crisis driven by high inflation, a looming rise in national insurance and stagnating wages – spiralling heating bills threaten to tip the household budgets of millions over the edge. According to calculations by the charity National Energy Action, six million families risk becoming fuel poor by the spring, when the energy price cap is expected to be significantly raised. This would be the highest number since such records began to be kept in 1996.
The bottom line of this crisis, for those at its sharp end, could not be more stark. Rishi Sunak’s culpably shortsighted decision to remove the universal credit uplift in the autumn stripped £20 a week from the bank accounts of the poor. In the absence of expanded fuel subsidies from the government, more and more of Britain’s less well-off families will be forced into desperate, humiliating choices between food, warmth and other essentials. Parents will go without to make sure their children eat a decent meal. Unheated homes will lead to greater ill health, while higher debt will bring spiralling levels of stress and anxiety.
