This Thursday Emma told the House of Commons about the damaging impact the Coalition’s energy policy is having in South Shields, highlighting rising fuel bills as well as their failure to help households make their homes more energy-efficient.
Speaking at Energy and Climate Change Questions, Emma said:
“A man in my constituency was recently arrested for stealing food. Upon escorting him home, the police found that not only did he have nothing to eat, but he had no heating or electricity at all in his home. He had turned to theft out of desperation. Why does the Minister not recognise that energy prices are a huge contributor to the cost-of-living crisis which is leading to such poverty and that this situation will only get worse until the Government adopt Labour’s energy price freeze?”
The Energy Secretary Ed Davey replied that the Government was being “proactive in this area”, but did not say he would support a price freeze.
Emma also raised the issue of home insulation, which can help households keep their homes warm at lower cost. Under the Coalition the number of homes having energy saving measures like home insulation installed has fallen to a tenth of its former level in the last year, following the introduction of the Government’s Energy Company Obligation (ECO).
Emma asked Mr Davey: “Last year, the number of additional winter deaths in the north-east hit a 10-year high. Many vulnerable people living in my constituency would have benefited from having better insulated homes, but since the introduction of the Government’s energy company obligation the number of households having insulation installed has fallen by 90%. How does the Minister explain this shocking step backwards?”
The Secretary of State replied that the Government took the issue of winter deaths “very seriously”, and insisted that the Government’s changes to the ECO were “very good news for people in fuel poverty.”
However, the fuel poverty gap – the difference between the price of people’s bills and what they can afford – has risen by £200m in the last two years alone.
Speaking after Energy Questions, Emma said:
“The Energy Secretary claimed that the Government is helping households struggling with the cost of heating their home, but nothing could be further from the truth. He and his Tory partners in the Coalition have repeatedly rejected Labour’s calls for a price freeze that would save an average of £120 a year for every household in South Shields, at a time when the cost of living crisis is squeezing household incomes and over 2.7 million households in the UK are in fuel poverty.
“The Secretary of State’s claim about the Energy Company Obligation also falls completely flat when you consider that over half of the fund does not even go towards helping vulnerable households. It is no wonder that the number of homes having insulation installed has fallen so dramatically.”