Formidable new local partnership in Brent demands warm homes for all

Some of the campaigners at Kilburn Square last Saturday

 

Campaigners from a new coalition of local organisations fighting for warm homes in Brent gathered at Kilburn Square on Saturday 3rd December as part of a national day of action on the energy price crisis. 

Local organisations that are part of the new partnership include a formidable list of local organisations and campaigns including  Advice4Renters, Brent Fairtrade Network, Brent Friends of the Earth, Granville Community Kitchen, Harlesden Mums who Cycle, Harlesden Neighbourhood Forum, Kilburn Neighbourhood Plan Forum, Kilburn Unemployed Workers, Sufra NW London and Transition Town Kensal to Kilburn.

The local partnership, United for Warm Homes Brent - which launched in November - aims to unite communities and organisations across the area that are working towards a common goal: warm homes that don’t cost the Earth. 

The national day of action was coordinated by the campaign Warm This Winter, which United for Warm Homes Brent is supporting as part of a UK-wide day of events pressuring the government to take swift and transformative action to stop people going cold this winter and beyond. 

With around six million people predicted to be in fuel poverty this winter, campaigners are urging the government to take stock and listen to the common sense solutions that will both lower skyrocketing energy bills and cut harmful carbon emissions. 

That means additional financial support for those struggling to afford to heat their homes to ensure people stay warm and well during the colder months. 

But longer-term solutions, that will bring down bills for good and prevent a year-on-year energy price crisis, are badly needed. Campaigners are urging the government to rapidly roll out a national programme to fix the UK’s poorly insulated homes, which are among the worst in Europe. This is one of the cheapest and quickest ways to bring down the nation’s energy bills. 

This should be done alongside reaping the UK’s full renewable power potential and scaling up the production of cheap, popular clean energy. Combined, these measures can slash energy prices, keep homes warm and reduce the amount of carbon unleashed into the atmosphere.

The event on 3^rd December saw volunteers from United for Warm Homes Brent displaying placards with the group’s goals and talking to local people about the campaign.

Simon Erskine, one of the co-ordinators at United for Warm Homes Brent, said:

The colder days are drawing in but the worst months are yet to come – and still the government has no credible plan to ease the pain of the cost of living crisis for millions of people, or lower our energy bills for good. 

Even with the package of financial support announced by the last PM, the number of people facing fuel poverty this winter has more than doubled compared to last year. Clearly, there are too many facing bleak and difficult months ahead and in desperate need of support. 

But going beyond the short-term and rolling out the measures that will help to lower bills for good must also be at the top of the government’s agenda. By committing to a nationwide insulation programme and a plan to rapidly ramp up the production of cheap, clean and popular renewable energy, the government can slash energy bills, cut carbon emissions and keep each and every one of us warm.

 

Day of Action: 'United for Warm Homes, Brent' invite you to join them on Kilburn Square this Saturday at Noon. Government must permanently fix our failed energy system.

 

The Government Needs To Keep Us Warm This Winter from Warm This Winter on Vimeo.

 On December 3rd Warm This Winter, an FoE partner campaign, is organising a national day of action to put pressure on the government to deal seriously with the energy crisis by insulating homes, properly supporting those in fuel poverty, and permanently fixing our failed energy system.

All are welcome to join Brent Friends of the Earth and the 'United for Warm Homes, Brent' coalition to distribute leaflets and display our placards.

Come to Kilburn Square, Kilburn High Road  on Saturday from noon until 2pm. Between W.H. Smith's and Kilburn High Road.

Councillors, the Mayor of Brent and local MPs have been invited to attend

More information at https://brentfoe.com/UFWH_Dec_3_Action_Brent, .

 

Fuel Poverty Action asks the new Prime Minister 3 challenging questions

Fuel Poverty Action has today written an open letter [1] to incoming Prime Minister Liz Truss, posing three questions about her response to the energy crisis that threatens to plunge millions of people into fuel poverty, causing cold, hunger, and destitution on a scale unseen for generations.  .

The first question is: Who will benefit from the policies to be announced this week, widely expected to include a taxpayer bail-out in the form of holding prices down.  We point out that the savings from such a move will largely accrue to people who can afford to use a lot of energy, while people who are barely putting the heating on will save very little.  Nor does the public have faith that we will benefit from a government loan based on a fantasy of a crisis-free future.  

The second question is: Who will pay? Will it be the taxpayer, at the expense of expenditure on welfare benefits, health, and housing?  Or will it be the energy companies, now enjoying undreamed of excess profits?  Will the Prime Minister’s energy policy address the fact that many of the suppliers claiming that they can’t sell energy for less than the wholesale prices they pay, are an arm of the very companies choosing to charge these prices? The letter says, “Asking taxpayers to pick up the tab for the obscene prices they are charging is the latest idea [2] from an extortionate industry that puts its profits before people's lives, and is ready to sacrifice even the planet we live on.” 

The third is: Will she implement FPA’s flagship proposal of Energy For All – a free allocation of energy to cover each household’s needs for essentials like heating, lighting and cooking. Energy For All would be paid for by

• higher tariffs on higher use - beyond needs
• windfall taxes, which could almost cover the support package the new Prime Minister is expected to announce [3], and
• an end to fossil fuel subsidies from the public purse, which amount to millions of pounds every day, and further swell the coffers of wealthy individuals and extraction of a polluting, expensive fuel.

This would have the benefit of encouraging responsible energy consumption, encouraging the introduction of energy saving measures and promoting green energy investment. Unlike most of the proposals being put forward it would be at the same time universal and targeted, turning rightside-up the current upside-down energy pricing system, where you pay more per unit of energy when you use less of it. 

The concept of Energy For All has captured the public's enthusiasm and brought new hope.. More and more organisations including the TUC are now coming out with similar schemes, and a petition signed by over 550,000 people will be handed into Downing Street at 1.00 pm on September 19th, with supporters  gathering beforehand at an event including speakers. 

 

[1] https://www.fuelpovertyaction.org.uk/news/fpa-writes-to-the-new-prime-minister-about-her-energy-policy-and-the-cost-of-living-disaster/

[2] Energy UK has proposed that taxpayers foot the bill for struggling businesses to meet their surging bills in a plan that could cost anywhere between £50bn and £100bn. https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/energy-companies-plan-businesses-winter-pay-bills-leaked-letter-1827585

[3] https://www.taxjustice.uk/blog/44bn-a-year-could-be-raised-from-higher-tax-on-oil-and-gas-profits

Fuel Poverty Action: 75% of those polled support the right to free energy to meet basic needs

 From Fuel Poverty Action

 

The present energy pricing system is leaving thousands each year to die of cold  and despite a government hand-out millions are in fear of next winter.

 

Fuel Poverty Action has long been advocating a free band of energy to every household to cover basic needs like keeping the lights on, keeping warm, and running a fridge. This would be paid for by higher prices for people who use more than they need, by windfall taxes  while prices and profits are so high, and by a permanent end to the subsidies paid to fossil fuel corporations, now worth billions of pounds.

 

This plan has the support of over 400,000 signatories on a change.org petition.  

 

And now nationwide polling has found that three quarters of the population support the right to free energy to meet people’s basic needs.  Only 10% opposed it. The poll was conducted by ICM, with a representative sample of 2000 British adults,10th - 12th  June 2022.

 

An even higher number – 81% – support abolition of the standing charge – the daily charge of around 44p per day on every customer’s energy bill, which must be paid regardless of how much you use.  Only 8% want this charge to stay.  

 

FPA have written to Ofgem about the way the costs of failing suppliers have been loaded onto the standing charge - the part of the bill that nobody can avoid - which FPA says is a “grotesque injustice”. 

 

Fuel Poverty Action’s Ruth London says,

 

The standing charge is even higher in some parts of the country, and it mounts up frighteningly quickly.  People on prepayment meters are often forced to find money to pay this charge before they can even turn the lights on. People who cut their use down to the bone in a bedsit end up paying more per unit of energy than those who are heating a mansion.

 

Energy For All would reverse this perverse system that incentivises waste and clobbers the people who can least afford it. It would finally give energy security where we most need it - at home. And it would press the government to finally fix the UK’s notoriously badly insulated housing and turn to cheaper, more sustainable sources of energy, like solar power and wind.

 

 

 

EMERGENCY PUBLIC MEETING: MORE FLOODS, MORE FUEL POVERTY?

ENERGY CRISIS, CLIMATE CRISIS – WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?

Emergency public meeting organised by Brent Campaign Against Climate Change and Brent Friends of the Earth. Supported by Brent Housing Action, Brent Trades Union Council and Brent Fightback. Speakers: Sophie Neuburg (Friends of the Earth), Ewa Jasiewicz (Fuel Poverty Action), Pilgrim Tucker (Unite Community), Suzanne Jeffery (One Million Climate Jobs Campaign)

Thursday 20 February, 7.30 pm, Chalkhill Primary School Sports Hall, Anton Place,  Bowater Road (off Chalkhill Road), Wembley Park. Free admission – all welcome.

Wembley Park Tube or buses: 83, 182, 245, 297