MPs and Peers returning to Parliament today (5 September) are being urged by the Warm this Winter campaign to back calls to lower energy bills by reducing the UK’s “dependency” on gas.
A briefing to MPs and Peers from the Warm this Winter campaign calls on Parliamentarians to push for a “coherent plan” to wean the UK off gas through a national rollout of home insulation and affordable renewables. The campaign is also demanding that the new government provides more direct emergency financial support for everyone this winter but particularly low-income households.
A Warm This Winter petition supporting the campaign’s demands has been signed by 120,000 people since it was launched last weekend. The growing coalition is working with Peers to table a series of amendments to the Government’s flagship Energy Bill, which starts Committee Stage in the Lords today, that would force the new Prime Minister to reduce the UK’s dependency on global gas markets.
We urge MPs to back these calls for genuine solutions to help people this winter and in future.
End Fuel Poverty Coalition, Simon Francis, said: “This summer MPs will have seen first-hand the anxiety and desperation their constituents are experiencing and will be wanting to do everything they can to help.
“That means more emergency money for people this winter, funding to help everyone cut their bills with better insulation, and a rapid move away from expensive gas and onto cheaper, renewable energy.
“We urge MPs to back these calls for genuine solutions to help people this winter and in future, and to ignore the special pleading of the oil and gas industry. The seriousness of this crisis demands that they back measures that will tangibly make a difference to people’s lives.”
Warm this Winter is a new campaign demanding the government act now to help tackle rising energy bills this winter and to ensure energy is affordable for everyone in the future. It is supported by anti-poverty and environmental organisations, including Save the Children, WWF, and the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.
Its demands of the government are to provide immediate emergency support, help upgrade homes and insulation, triple the amount of renewable energy in the UK by 2030, and stop opening new oil and gas fields.
MPs now have an opportunity to push for measures that will help people this winter and make sure the country is in a better position in winters to come.
Members of the Warm this Winter coalition wrote to the Conservative leadership candidates in July urging them to use the summer to come up with credible proposals for ensuring that every household could afford to heat their home this winter and for lowering energy costs in future.
Director of Uplift, Tessa Khan, said: “In every constituency across the country, households and businesses are looking at their energy bills with dread, knowing that they cannot fix this on their own.
“Finally, MPs now have an opportunity to push for measures that will help people this winter and make sure the country is in a better position in winters to come. Even if it were possible, more domestic gas won’t lower bills. All it will do is increase industry profits and lock us into an unaffordable energy source for longer than necessary.”