Joining the campaign to be Warm This Winter

No matter where we live, we all deserve to be comfortable and safe in our own homes. But sky-rocketing energy bills over the last few years have left millions around the UK unable to pay, with many forced to choose between heating and eating, and leading to nearly 5,000 excess deaths from cold homes. 

With costs set to rise again this October, Positive Money is proud to join the Warm This Winter campaign, alongside over 50 other charities and activist groups, calling on the government to provide more immediate financial support to protect the most vulnerable, a mass insulation programme to improve our leaky houses, and long-term investment to boost our supply of home-grown clean energy to bring down bills for good. 

The new government inherited a broken energy system which prioritises the profits of oil and gas companies like Shell and BP over ordinary people; they cannot continue on this path. Short-term steps like reversing Chancellor Rachel Reeve’s decision to scrap universal winter fuel support for pensioners are vital, alongside bold action to fix Britain’s broken energy system permanently. Great British Energy is a step in the right direction but, there’s much more to be done. 

Energy bills started rising for several reasons: the pandemic, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, corporate profiteering - but ultimately because we are overdependent on fossil fuels. International oil and gas prices are volatile, and easily influenced by geopolitical events, as well as private financial companies engaging in speculation, which distorts markets. Plus, since energy is an essential input in producing almost everything else in our economy, rising energy costs drive up the price of everything else too - this is known as fossilflation. 

This phenomenon isn’t new. We had an oil crisis in the 1970s, more price rises followed the wars in Kuwait, Iraq, and Afghanistan in the 2000s, and we see it happening again today, with international oil prices rising following the US’ decision to send more troops to the Middle East. The best way to shield us from soaring energy bills in the future is to end the UK’s dependence on fossil fuels once and for all, and grow our own supply of domestic, clean, green energy.  

That’s why, alongside short-term action to help those most impacted by fuel poverty this winter, we need the government to redirect billions in private and public investment away from polluting industries and towards home-grown clean energy, and to retrofit our homes to make them safer all year around and for decades to come. 

Hot weather killed nearly 50,000 people in Europe in 2023. We don’t yet know how many deaths these recent days of 30+ degree weather in the UK will result in, but any number is too high. These are avoidable climate deaths, which hit racialised communities the hardest. Fortunately; “the solutions to keep us warm in the colder weather are the same as keeping us cool in summer. Better insulation, ventilation and even heat pumps that can operate in a cooling mode can all help. But the public need financial support to upgrade their homes”, as Fiona Waters, spokesperson for Warm This Winter has said. 

It’s time for us to join the dots between our soaring energy and food bills, over-dependence on international oil and gas markets, and the climate crisis. Sign Warm This Winter’s open letter to the new government to protect households this winter and make our energy system fairer for the future.

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