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It's heating or eating in winter for us, pensioners warn Mayor
Peter Dominiczak, City Hall Correspondent19 Sep 2011
Pensioners today urged Boris Johnson to tackle fuel poverty as it emerged that more vulnerable people than ever are struggling to pay their energy bills.
More than one in four people in the capital are currently unable to meet their energy bills as rising prices and welfare reforms threaten to send even more into fuel poverty.
A report by London Councils today warns that rising fuel prices means that fuel poverty could be a key issue this winter.
A group of pensioners submitted a petition to City Hall last week calling on the Mayor to do more to assist vulnerable people across the capital who are unable to pay their bills.
Fuel poverty in London is defined as when a household has to spend more than a tenth of its income to "maintain an adequate level of warmth" after housing costs. George Durack, 87, a retired post office worker who chairs the Islington Pensioners' Forum, today warned that elderly people could die if something is not done to combat the problem.
He said: "Something needs to be done about this. They are reducing the fuel poverty allowance and a lot of people are going to struggle.
"There are pensioners dying because of fuel poverty. It's horrible. A lot of pensioners are really going to feel it this winter. The cost of living has already gone up so much and this just makes things much worse."
Mr Durack added: "It has got to the point where, for a lot of pensioners, you either heat or you eat. People are going without meals - it is that bad. Something needs to be done and that is why we are taking our petition to City Hall."
Between 2004 and 2009 domestic electricity prices increased by over 75 per cent and gas prices increased by over 122 per cent. A number of suppliers including British Gas and NPower, this year announced further price rises.
Catherine West, chairwoman of London Councils' Transport and Environment Committee, said: "Fuel poverty is a real and growing danger to low-income families in the capital. With rising living costs and fuel bills, more households face a miserable winter fighting off the cold.
"While boroughs will do what they can to support families with advice and through energy efficiency schemes like Re:New, we also need Ofgem to bear down more aggressively on energy companies who are benefiting from lower wholesale prices."
Reader views (10)
I don't think Boris has any power over prices, I am OAP I can get by with Boris, I can't afford Livingstone
- peter, London, 20/09/2011 16:08
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It's not only London pensioners who will be suffering this winter. London has its own micro-climate; other parts of the country are often colder - so what about pensioners in these areas? The trouble as I see it is that even if you change your gas and electricity supplier, there really isn't much difference in prices between the various power suppliers. Once one hikes up its prices, then they all do.
And to be people who've made very negative comments so far about pensioners complaining about fuel prices, I take it that you are all on incomes in excess of my just under £8k per annum. And I consider myself to be fortunate as I do have a very tiny occupational pension as well as a single person's State pension. Still, with the rising costs of fuel and other commodities such as food, I, too, will have to cut back severely on heating and hot water costs if the weathermen are right that we're going to get a very cold winter, starting in October.
- Judith, King's Lynn, England, 20/09/2011 13:46
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A wonderful example to us all of capitalism, red in tooth and claw, in action. And if anyone can advance a single reason why the government should not take action to regulate the fuel companies, I'd love to hear it.
- Crazy Hippie, 10 Drowning St. SW1, 20/09/2011 11:32
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I am very well off and so this doesn't bother me.
I can easily afford heating.
Plus those energy companies must do well, so my pension pot it happily ticking over very nicely too.
I agree with energy price rises.
- Seymour Bwana And His Stick That Spoke Thunder., Surrey, 20/09/2011 10:50
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I'm not convinced that fuel poverty and rising prices are the real issues here.
It does not make sense to simply give pensioners more money to spend on heating - this simply throws more money at the super-rich energy industry.
The underlying problem is that too many UK homes are poorly insulated. If they were modernised to the standards enjoyed by Scandinavians, temporary jobs would be created to bring them up to scratch while there would be permanent benefits in terms of money and energy saved and reductions in environmental pollution.
The Energy Bill is currently making its way through Parliament. It will include a new law which will, from 2018, require landlords to improve the energy efficiency of the coldest rented homes. Campaigners are lobbying for improvements to make the start date two years earlier at 2016 and to ensure properties must be improved to at least a minimum standard before being rented out.
Boris - or Ken, Brian and Jenny for that matter - could lend their support to these changes and start making them happen in London in 2012.
- Arfur Towcrate, Staffycher, 20/09/2011 07:23
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Johnson and the Nasty Party just don't care. Period. Never have and never will. What's a few deaths to them anyway?
Big business and shareholders are FAR more important than vulnerable, elderly folk.
- ID, South Coast, UK, 19/09/2011 14:09
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"Between 2004 and 2009 domestic electricity prices increased by over 75 per cent and gas prices increased by over 122 per cent. A number of suppliers including British Gas and NPower, this year announced further price rises."
I don't really see what this has to do with Boris or any local authority. This is everything to do with the sheer greed of the energy companies and their shareholders.
Increase after increase, "Front-loading" bills, complex tariffs etc etc, and all the while spouting ridiculous platitudes about wholesale prices, investment blah blah. The UK energy industry is guilty of blatant extortion. A Free and competitive market ? . . no. When one company increases they all follow at an appropriate distance. They are however prepared to spend vast sums on advertising about how much “they care” and sponsoring Eye profile status symbols.
Choice ? You can choose whether you eat baked beans or filet steak. You can choose to drive a Fiat or a Ferrari. You can choose to buy clothes in a street market or Bond Street. There is no real choice on energy supply, as all the company behave in the same way, appallingly and ruthlessly.
.
.
- Rog, Enfield, 19/09/2011 13:52
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I can only imagine that the Evening Standard will not back Boris next year.
- I know why, Hackney, London, 19/09/2011 13:42
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Don't ask poor old Boris to do anything today, he's still reeling from what some of tha daily papers have reported about him.I forgot He's another clown that will be looking for some job soon in a circus,at least one can be sure of one thing ---- He won't need a wig.
- Hamilton Straker, Ealing West London, 19/09/2011 11:52
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Why don't you all just put on an extra pullover or coat and stop complaining? The Mayor has much more important matters to contend with, other than those of some wimpy OAPs complaining about fuel prices!
Really! What IS this country coming to?
- Baron von Richtofen, Biggin Hill, 19/09/2011 11:42
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