Energy price hike: ‘It’s a choice between eating or heating’

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Zoya, a student lives with her parents and two siblings in Leicester, spoke to Socialist Worker

Millions of people will see their household energy bills rise again this winter after the Ofgem regulator announced a new “price cap” this week.

The further 1.2 percent hike means the average household will now see their annual bill rise to a staggering £1,738. Ofgem had already raised its price cap by 10 percent in October. 

The new rise will come into effect during the coldest months of winter and at a time when Labour has stripped the Winter Fuel Allowance from millions of pensioners. Spiralling energy bills are already crushing many working class people.

Zoya is a student in Leicester and lives with her parents and two siblings in a privately rented house. “I try to stay in the college library for as long as possible. It’s just so cold at home,” she told Socialist Worker.

“We can only afford to put the heating on for an hour or two, even on the coldest days. Because our house has single glazed windows, we lose any heat really quickly.

“It’s not just fuel bills that are going up, it’s all weekly essentials. So in our house it’s a choice of food on the table or putting the heating on.”

Zoya says being cold at home affects the mood of everyone in the family and makes it hard to “function normally”. And she says the situation makes her angry. 

“Even though we’re really careful with the heating, we’re now putting £50 on the gas top up meter about twice a month,” she said “That’s a lot of money for us. 

“To be warm is a fundamental human need. So being denied it makes me angry and frustrated.”

Zoya is right to be furious. Ofgem announced last month that “energy debt” in Britain had reached a massive £3.7 billion, an increase of £400 million over the previous three months.

The current debt level has grown by over 50 percent over the past year alone. That means millions of people face similar choices to Zoya—keep the house warm, feed the family, or get ever deeper into debt.

Nationalise now, but not to bail out the system

Peter Smith of the charity National Energy Action said, “Without a significant intervention by the government and energy regulator, it will only get worse.

“Only by directly reducing the most vulnerable customers’ bills as a priority and helping them to pay off these unmanageable debts can we avoid shattering people’s personal finances and badly damaging their health and wellbeing.”

Labour ought to hang its head in shame at the new figures. After all, the party promised that energy bills would come down when it got into office.

Instead, we’re paying on average £170 a year more now than we were when Keir Starmer was elected.

And that’s because Labour left the “free market” in control of energy policy, rather than nationalising the suppliers, generators and the national grid.

Nationalisation would have allowed the government to set energy prices for the long term.

Labour’s choice to keep energy in private hands has allowed its bosses to carry on lining their pockets.

And that means Zoya and many others are forced to choose where to stay and keep warm when the weather outside is so brutally cold.