‘Why eliminating fuel poverty is a Labour mission for government’

Energy bills were an issue that kept coming up on the doorsteps, even during an early summer election campaign. People are struggling and having to make choices that no one should have to make in 2024.

It’s a disgrace that hard working parents are having to choose between sending their kids to school in clean school uniforms or giving them a hot meal, and, with bills forecast to rise again the autumn, our old age pensioners are facing going without heating this coming winter. Fuel poverty is at historically high levels.

In our constituencies alone, there were 6,600 in Waveney (the old seat Lowestoft largely replaces), 8,400 in Great Grimsby (now Great Grimsby and Cleethorpes) and 10,600 in Stoke on Trent Central – the highest in the country, according to 2022 analysis by National Energy Action.

After 14 years of inaction and a lack of care from the Tories, a staggering 5.6 million households are estimated to be living in fuel poverty across the UK.

That’s more than five times higher than under the last Labour government. And it amounts to entire communities of people having to make impossible choices, like deciding between heating and eating, as well as having to cope with a constant, crippling fear of the next energy bill dropping on the doormat.

The Tory record

The Tory record on tackling fuel poverty through the delivery of proper home insulation programmes has been shameful and they’ve let people down badly. The last government provided grant support to fewer than 100,000 of the 5.6 million households in fuel poverty in 2022 to 2023 (the last twelve months for which data is available). Let’s be clear, Labour wouldn’t have let this happen.

And, as with NHS waiting lists, it’s an area where Labour government programmes have delivered before, with successful, scalable and accessible national programmes that worked to insulate homes, upgrade heating and deliver lower bills for people in or at risk of fuel poverty. Under the last Labour governments, more than 2 million households across the UK received grant support to upgrade the energy efficiency of their home between 2005 – 2010 alone.

Labour’s Warm Front Scheme was upgrading hundreds of thousands of homes a year before it was slashed and then ultimately scrapped by Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, when Prime Minister, David Cameron, called to ‘cut the green crap’ in 2012.

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Now we are in government again, Labour is ready to take action that makes a real impact through our Warm Homes Plan to insulate households in fuel poverty – cutting bills and making homes warmer and healthier – and through the benefits that will come from GB Energy in terms of lower energy bills from cheaper renewable energy and energy independence.

We know our new government is ready to take action quickly to make sure that people struggling with their energy bills understand that we are ready and able to deliver help. Like Warm Front before it, Labour’s Warm Homes Plan will deliver support to households struggling in fuel poverty across the UK, working with Mayoralties, regional and local government, local tradespeople and local people – who know their local communities – to create local jobs, as well as reducing the burden on the NHS that is exacerbated by people being forced to live in cold, damp homes.

Labour in government

And our Warm Homes Plan isn’t just about tackling the scourge of fuel poverty. It’s about making sure that net zero, and our plan for 100 percent cleaner, greener and cheaper energy by 2030, benefits everyone in our local communities. As Ed Miliband has said, placing social justice at the heart of net zero is not just a moral imperative, it’s a practical necessity that will yield immediate and lasting impacts for millions of people.

Put simply, that’s a Labour agenda and it will be for many years to come, creating jobs, ensuring fairness and changing lives across the country.

Our track record shows that we know how to bring down energy bills and tackle fuel poverty once and for all. We’re looking forward to supporting Ed Miliband and Sarah Jones, Lord Hunt, Kerry McCarthy, Miatta Fahnbulleh and Michael Shanks on his team at DESNZ to hit the ground running, proving again that we can make this a lasting Labour success story and a central part of our transformational Green Recovery Plan.

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