Urgently back common-sense solutions to keep people warm this winter.
Caroline Lucas MP is hosting a debate on Fossil Fuels and Increases in the Cost of Living in Parliament at Westminster Hall on the 11th of January from 9.30am to 11am. It's a great opportunity for us to show MPs why fixing the cost of living crisis means taking the leap away from fossil fuels - and why it needs to happen now. But first, we need to get MPs in the hall.
Rt. Hon Rishi Sunak
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA
28th October 2022
Dear Prime Minister,
Firstly, congratulations on your appointment. We are writing from a coalition of the UK’s leading charities to ask you, in your new role, to act now on the energy and poverty crisis.
Without immediate action from your government, it is estimated that around seven million households will face an impossible winter, being forced to make unimaginably difficult choices between heating their homes and putting food on the table. In many cases it will be even worse than this as those with preexisting health conditions and disabilities are forced to face the severe health consequences of living in a cold damp home.
As we are sure you are aware, this will be felt particularly strongly in your constituency, with 26% of households, above the national average, already living in fuel poverty. By April, with the removal of the Energy Price Guarantee, 39% of households in your constituency could be forced to make decisions between basic lifelines. But there is a way through: we believe there are two urgent priorities, which we would hope to see as a central part of your agenda, including in your Autumn Statement.
First, we urge you to expand the support available to people this winter. The support offered so far, such as the Energy Price Guarantee has been welcome. However, so much more is needed, especially for those hardest hit by this crisis, to stave off the worst impacts. Alongside this, we need urgent clarity on the future of financial support from April of next year. The average bill is expected to be over £4000, almost four times more than it was before the gas price crisis. As a first step, the decision to uprate benefits in line with inflation, as has been conventional, should be confirmed and implemented as soon as possible.
Second, the quickest, cheapest and simplest way to bring down bills in the medium-term is to embark rapidly on a massive national programme of insulating our homes, schools, hospitals and workplaces. The existing government schemes do not meet the scale of the crisis We estimate that a proper insulation scheme could save households, on average, around £500 on their bills each year, and such a programme would soon pay for itself.
Alongside these immediate measures, we urge you to instruct your new Business Secretary to implement a plan for a rapid roll-out, in harmony with nature, of clean, renewable energy, moving the UK beyond expensive, volatile fossil fuels and enhancing UK energy security as soon as possible. Onshore and offshore wind and solar energy are many times cheaper than gas. Now is the time for our islands, with their huge renewable energy resources, to show the world how to tackle the cost of living and climate crises at the same time. We must not look to the industries of the past at this moment of crisis: they are a distraction.
By building out this vision, we can end this crisis and reinvigorate the economy. Clear policy signals and targeted public investment can unlock huge sums of private capital, driving a cost-effective transition that benefits homeowners, builds a stronger economy and protects the planet.
We wish you all the best in your role - and given the urgency of this crisis, we would appreciate a response to this letter as soon as possible, and would value an opportunity to discuss these issues in-person with you within your first month in office.
Yours sincerely,
Shaun Spiers, Green Alliance, Executive Director
Caroline Abrahams, Age UK, Charity Director
Gwen Hines, Save the Children UK, CEO
Polly Neate, Shelter, CEO
Dr Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, Oxfam GB, CEO
Melissa Green, National Federation of Women’s Institutes (WI), General Secretary
Joe Cole, Advice for Renters, Chief Executive
Jane Collins, Foster Support, Chief Executive
Joan Edwards OBE, The Wildlife Trusts, Director of Policy and Public Affairs
Simon Francis, End Fuel Poverty Coalition, Co-ordinator
Katy Styles, We Care Campaign, Founder
Ellen Lebethe, Lambeth Pensioners Action Group, Chair
Sue Riddlestone OBE, Bioregional, Chief Executive
Jan Shortt, National Pensioners Convention, General Secretary
Max Wakefield, Possible, Co-Director
Janine Michael, Centre for Sustainable Energy, Deputy Chief Executive
Nick Owen MBE, The Mighty Creatives, CEO
Gavin Smart, Chartered Institute of Housing, CEO
Liz Emerson, Intergenerational Foundation, CEO
Andrew Pendleton, Global Action Plan, CEO (Acting)
Frazer Scott, Energy Action Scotland, Chief Executive
Ross Matthewman, Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, Head of Policy and Campaigns
Ruth London, Fuel Poverty Action
Rev Dr Simon Woodman and Rev Vanessa Conant, Citizens UK, Co-chairs - Just Transition Campaign
Will Snell, Fairness Foundation, Chief Executive
Patrick Marples, South West London Law Centres, Chief Executive
Sarah Woolnough, Asthma + Lung UK, CEO
Miriam Turner & Hugh Knowles, Friends of the Earth, Co-Executive Director
Martin O’Brien, Association of Local Energy Officers
Kamran Mallick, Disability Rights UK, CEO
Harriet Lamb, Ashden, CEO
Richard Quallington, Action with Communities in Rural England (ACRE), Executive Director
Alan Markey, National Association of Welfare Rights Advisers, Chair
Mark Knox, Aspire NI, CEO
Sam Ward, Climate Cymru, Manager
Rowan Ryrie, Parents for Future UK, Founder
Seamus McGibbon, Creators’ Rights Alliance. Public Relations and Campaigns
Deborah Tomkins, Green Christian, Co-chair
Dr Laura Santamaria, Fair Energy Campaign, Campaign Chair
Robert Taylor, Camden Federation of Private Tenants (CFPT), Organiser
Sabine Goodwin, Independent Food Aid Network, Coordinator
Svetlana Kotova, Inclusion London, Director of Campaigns and Justice
J Todd, Climate Action Network West Midlands, Treasurer
Alicia Kennedy, Generation Rent, Director
John McGowan, Social Workers Union, General Secretary
Joseph Howes, End Child Poverty Coalition, Chair
Tessa Khan, Uplift, Executive Director
Chris Meregini, Southwark Group of Tenants Organisations, Chair
David Hillman, Stamp Out Poverty, Director
Garry Campbell, Groundwork UK, Communications Manager
Katie-Jo Luxton, RSPB, Executive Director
Andy Atkins, A Rocha UK, CEO
Mark Hodgkinson, Scope, Chief Executive
Roz Davies, The Green Estate CIC, CEO
David Cowdrey, MCS Foundation, Director of External Affairs
Angela Francis, WWF, Director of Policy Solutions
Tufail Hussain, Islamic Relief, UK Director
Sarah Greenfield Clark, Climate 2025, Director
Anna Henry, The Movements Trust, Director
Pamela Healy OBE, British Liver Trust, Chief Executive
Revd Dr Darrell Hannah, Operation Noah, Chair
Julie Harrington, Guts UK Charity, CEO
Rachel Kirby-Rider, Young Lives vs Cancer, Chief Executive
Marshall, National Development Team for Inclusion (NDTi), Chief Executive
Alice Harrison, Global Witness, Strategy Lead, Fossil Fuels Newsroom
Carys Roberts, Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), Executive Director
Adam Scorer, NEA (National Energy Action), CEO
Chaitanya Kumar, NEF (New Economics Foundation), Head of Environment and Green Transition
Bronwen Smith-Thomas, The Climate Coalition, Head of Campaigns and Politics
Nick Bryer, 350.org, European Campaigns Director
Charlotte Davies, Swansea MAD, CEO
Felix Wight, Repowering London, Interim CEO
You were elected to government with an enormous majority on the promise of change. You have a real opportunity - and responsibility - to deliver it. We’re encouraged to see that you’ve already stuck by your promise to end the ban on new onshore wind in England. But there’s still much more to do to make our energy system fairer and protect households this winter.
For too long, our broken energy system has prioritised oil and gas company profits and left millions of people living in cold, damp, mouldy homes, forced to make a stark choice between heating our homes and eating.
Millions of people are still living in fuel poverty. Whilst energy bills fell in the summer, we all know the benefits will be wiped out when they rise again in October. At a time of soaring energy debt, many of us simply cannot afford another winter of the same old system.
In your manifesto, you promised urgently needed change: to lower energy bills, insulate homes and invest in homegrown clean energy while getting us off oil and gas. Now, you must take urgent action to support struggling households through the coming winter.
We urge you to stick to the promises you made and deliver on them for communities all across the UK by: protecting vulnerable households, launching a Help to Repay energy debt scheme, expanding renewables, banning forced prepayment meters and ensuring smart meters work for all who want them, ramping up insulation programmes, reforming standing charges and ending energy industry profiteering.
There are simple and immediate ways you can begin to deliver on your commitments, and make things fairer for households, including:
- Launching the Warm Homes Plan
- Introducing a more comprehensive Warm Homes Discount this winter
- Protecting us from soaring energy prices by getting off oil and gas for good
We voted for bold solutions to the energy crisis.
As the UK government, you have a once in a generation opportunity to show that you will bring meaningful change to fix our broken energy system for good.
