Coalition sets out winter rescue plan for Chancellor’s Budget

Households are heading into winter with the wholesale price of gas at its highest level in four years and analysis by the End Fuel Poverty Coalition suggests the gas unit rate consumers will pay from January 1 2027 could be double that of 12 months ago.

Those using heating oil, LPG or on some heat networks are already facing sharp increases with no price cap protection at all.

The increases caused by further conflict in the Middle East will land on households that never escaped the high prices and debts built up when the Russian invasion of Ukraine sent prices soaring.

In response, the Coalition submitted a formal seven-point winter rescue plan to the Chancellor. The plan centres on writing off energy crisis arrears, funded by the £7 billion excess profits windfall that Citizens Advice found has been handed to energy network companies. This would also bring down bills for all by removing the £52 ‘bad debt allowance’ currently part of the Ofgem price cap.

It also asks for the Warm Home Discount to be uprated and extended to vulnerable households outside the means-tested benefits system and for Cold Weather Payments to be replaced by an Extreme Weather Payment covering both cold snaps and dangerous summer heat.

And it argues that social workers, healthcare professionals, energy support workers and debt advisers should be able to refer households into support and home upgrades.

Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “Two hundred days on from the start of the US-Israeli conflict with Iran and it is households in Britain who are being handed the bill.

“This is the entirely predictable result of leaving households exposed to volatile fossil fuel markets and an energy system which has generated over £6bn in UK profits for just a handful of firms and a record level of energy debt for consumers.

“The recommendations given to the Chancellor are the bare minimum of what needs to be done to make energy more affordable for those most at risk of living in unhealthy homes. With gas prices again on a dangerous upward trajectory, further emergency financial support may also be needed to keep people safe this winter.

“What would also make a difference now is a concerted national effort to get off gas and heating oil. That means breaking the link between electricity prices and the gas market, speeding up roll out of the Warm Homes Plan and putting support in place before this winter arrives.”