People are struggling to pay their energy bills – here’s a simple idea that could help
Here is the sure sign of a government in a death spiral, devoid of ideas, plans or solutions. Can they really stand by and do next to nothing while shocking energy bills land this month? Already the poorest people on expensive prepay meters find their electricity running out at the speed of light. If it’s bad now, “a truly horrific winter” lies ahead, warned energy companies in parliament this week. Bills will shoot up again in October, just as people turn up their heating.
The government’s response has been nugatory, its mean mitigations mostly in loans that only stoke future problems for households: high energy prices are not set to be a brief spike. When energy companies warn that some 40% of households will fall into fuel poverty, with thousands telling them already about their inability to pay, inaction is not an option. Food banks are already overwhelmed, with long queues for the most basic of supplies. Laissez-faire is unthinkable.
There are solutions, short and long term. Here is a particularly imaginative one, from Fuel Poverty Action, which would reverse the perversities in current pricing. Give everyone a minimum quantity of free energy, enough to just about manage frugally in a small home. Then raise the tariff on a steep gradient for all extra energy used, so big properties and heavy users pay higher and higher rates the more they use, covering the cost of the free energy. The incentive for everyone would be to cut back as much as they could, so high-earners who never bothered about it before would find energy extravagance exorbitant. They too would soon be turning off lights and devices on standby, using less water (energy intensive) and wearing more vests and jumpers.
The present system does the opposite.
Read more on theguardian.com
