Blog

The Big Six energy companies who provide 99% of users with their energy in the UK are raking in the profits. Even in the last three months profits per household have risen from £15 to £125 accord to Ofgem. This is alarming news not least because as the chill of winter begins to hit, families up and down the country will be forced to chose to either eat or heat.

Chris Huhne, speaking on the Jeremy Vine show about energy prices told listeners ways families could cut down on the costs of their fuel bills by taking a number of simple measures. Switching to direct debit would save around £200 per year, plus moving to duel fuel would increase savings on the families annual fuel bill. What then for individuals and families who already do both of these and are still facing tough choices on how to keep warm this winter? This was quite frankly useless advice. Huhne and the government need to be ready to go toe-to-toe with the energy giant’s instead of telling families to shop around for the best energy deals.

In 2009 4 million households were classified as being in ‘fuel poverty’, increasing each year since 2003. In the Hills fuel poverty interim report published today , if only one-tenth of ‘winter deaths’ were caused by fuel poverty the estimated number of deaths would 2,700. But when will the ‘greenest government ever’ live up to its pre-election mantra and get tough on these energy companies who continue to provide us with dirty fuel at an ever increasing cost?

Here in the UK we need to shake off our reliance on fossil fuels and encourage further the use of green energy. The Big Six energy companies and others have too much power and are reluctant to move away from these dirty fuels. Steps need to be taken to think bigger and be bolder in the UK and Europe; attempts by the European Union to see cuts in CO2 emissions by 2020 increase from 20-30% have been accepted by some companies such as Google, Sony and Ikea but lobbied hard against by Volkswagen and others.

In order to drive the green growth industry in the UK and Europe tougher CO2 cuts are needed. This however wasn’t on the mind of the Chancellor George Osborne at the Conservative Party Conference last month who said, “We’re not going to save the planet by putting our country out of business”. Although the UK is legally committed to reducing emissions by 35% in 2022 and 50% by 2025, Mr Osborne should be wanting the UK to be leading the rest of Europe. It is precisely tough CO2 cuts that will fuel green growth and create greens jobs at a time when 2.57 million people are out of work.