New calls for ‘emergency energy tariff’ to help lower bills by £87 each month for vulnerable households

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A number of health, poverty, housing and environmental organisations along with academics have written to Chancellor Jeremy Hunt MP, to request the introduction of an ‘Emergency Energy Tariff’ in his Autumn Statement, which is due to be delivered in Parliament on Wednesday, November 22.The Emergency Energy Tariff would use the Uk Government’s existing Energy Price Guarantee mechanism to fix the unit costs and standing charges for vulnerable groups at a lower level.

Campaigners have suggested that this is fixed at the levels of energy bills in winter 2020/21, which would see eligible households’ energy bills reduced by approximately £87 each month from current levels - a saving of around 46 per cent.The letter to the Chancellor cites new research by the Warm This Winter campaign which shows that over a third (38%) of people from households where someone is under the age of five, pregnant, over-65 or with pre-existing health conditions think they won’t, or may not be able to, afford to put the heating on at all this winter.Research by campaigners suggests that almost two-thirds (62%) of vulnerable households already want to put the heating on, but are worried about the cost.

A new petition for the Emergency Energy Tariff has been launched on the Warm This Winter campaign website here.Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, which is part of the campaign to introduce the Tariff, said: “The reality of this winter is that, without support, we will be a nation sheltering in warm spaces, cowering in one room of our homes or wrapped up inside like the michelin man.

This should not be acceptable in a modern society.“The proposed Emergency Energy Tariff is a specific, targeted, time limited and practically