FROM THE CLIMATE CRISIS TO THE QUIET CRISIS – FUEL POVERTY IN THE UK

Fuel Poverty is a harsh reality for millions in the UK. This year the government changed the definition of it from being one of whether you spend more than 10% of your income on energy to whether once you pay your bill you fall below the poverty line. Charities and advice organisations  still go by the old definition which means we have 6.59 million households in fuel poverty – an increase of 49% or 2.15 million on 2011 (Association for the Conservation of Energy). In England alone, the number of children growing up in fuel poverty stands at 1.94 million – up 890,000 (an increase of 85%) on 2011. Bills have gone up 37% over the past three years pushing millions into debt and dreaded Prepayment Meters (PPMs), whilst at the same time Big Six combined profits were £3.7bn in 2012.

Around eight million people are on PPMs and can end up paying 30-90% more for their energy compared to direct debit users. According to a recent Citizens Advice Bureaux study 80% of those who had prepayment meters installed did not want them. In the UK, energy companies are allowed to break into your home and install these machines so that they can recover their debts by force. This means that when you can’t afford to top up, you’ll cut yourself off, and have no option but to sit in the cold, damp and dark for days on end. At FPA we’ve had emails from people who have told us they’ve had to go without heat or light for five days at a time. Even if you don’t turn anything on and live cave-like, the energy company will still charge you (the Standing Charge) of around £3 per week. The poorest, as usual, are paying the highest price in Austerity Britain.

So what can we do? Fuel Poverty Action is rooted in the climate movement and is dedicated to exposing the systemic and structural links between poverty, corporate power, energy policy and climate change. We join the dots between how the government tows the line thrown by energy companies to keep us hooked on fossil fuels, resulting in energy policy which suits their interests, escalating fuel poverty and climate change at the same time. The Big Six – British Gas (owned by Centrica), Scottish Power (owned by Spain’s Iberdrola), Scottish and Southern Electric (SSE), EDF, Eon and Npower – own 99% of the domestic energy market in what is widely recognised as a monopoly and a cartel. They’re also going for gas and Nuclear, with Centrica recently buying a 25% stake in Cuadrilla’s Bowland shale concession and EDF being promised double the market rate for electricity generated from their Hinkley Point facility.

If we want to beat fracking, if we want to stop people dying because they cannot afford to heat their homes and if we want a secure, sustainable, green energy system, then we need to reclaim our power in every sense of the word. We have to start at home – our own and others’ – by bringing energy back under public and community control. We believe in a not for profit public energy system that puts people and planet first.

The wider climate crisis we’re facing is mirrored by the quiet crisis millions are living, behind closed doors, dreading bailiffs, benefit sanctions or where the next paypacket is coming from; relying on foodbanks and payday loans, watching their homes and lives fall apart. Tackling these crises is possible when we stand up to the profiteering energy companies and politicians who only ever seem to talk about us when they want votes or credibility for their next business venture or election.

Fracking won’t bring down energy bills – even George Osborne has admitted this. Let’s join together, support each other and take collective direct action to bring down the Big Six and bring ourselves into the frame for deciding the future of our energy and our climate.

Fuel Poverty Action is a project of the Climate Justice Collective which came out of Climate Camp. We work with disabled activists, pensioners, single mothers, asylum seekers, students and all those affected by fuel poverty. We provide advice, support and also take direct action against profiteering energy companies. We were part of Reclaim the Power last year in Balcombe. More about us here: www.fuelpovertyaction.org.uk. If you’d like to donate to our work which includes running coffee mornings and enabling people on low or no incomes to travel to participate in our meetings and actions, you can do so here: http://fuelpovertyaction.org.uk/donate/