A man has said how his family wear extra layers at homes in a bid to stay warm as energy bills continue to rise.
David Read, from L8, is just one of the many who will be protesting this weekend in the city as part of a Warm-Up protest - a demonstration urging the government to take action over “sky-high” fuel prices and “forced” instalments of prepayment meters in the UK.
Protesters will be bringing placards, and banners, and encouraging the public to support and join the campaign. Meeting at Pier Head, the protesters will march to an indoor public space which they “will occupy for as long as possible”.
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Mr Read will be standing in solidarity with others around the region. The 60-year-old claims his bills went from around £220 per month in November 2021 to now being more than £600 a month.
The retired IT worker told the ECHO: “At the same time energy producers started recording massive increases in their profits. I decided enough was enough. I didn’t see why I should be shelling out almost one-third of my pension just to prop up the lifestyles of the super-rich.
“We have quite a big old Victorian house which is expensive to heat at the best of times. We have spent money over the years insulating and trying to reduce energy usage through investing in modern heating systems, low-energy goods and installing solar panels. The central heating is usually only on in the winter. This year we have turned down the thermostat, turned down radiator valves, stopped using the tumble drier and didn’t turn the heating on until the cold freeze at the end of November.
“We wear extra layers but as we are all at home, I retired, my wife still working from home and our youngest son at university still at home, we still need a minimum level of heat. Why should we freeze so millionaires can live a life of luxury?”
In a bid to combat rising energy prices, Mr Read said he is already having to “eat” into his private pension “to pay for extortionate” bills. He added: “I can’t afford to keep doing this.”
The dad isn’t alone in making cutbacks to “make ends meet”. Chris Cannon, who lives in Knotty Ash, claims his bills have “doubled” in the space of a year. The 38-year-old has had to stop visiting his family as much because of the increase in fuel prices.
The ambulance dispatcher told the ECHO: “I’m tired of huge corporations holding normal people to ransom. We've had to cut back as much as can and limit the amount of fuel we use. My partner and I have had to work overtime just to make ends meet. We're using less fuel and making the grocery budget stretch as much as we can. These resources are essential to life, they shouldn't be exploited for huge profits.”
He added: “These companies need to see the effect they are having on the population. Of course, they aren't going to change unless we use our power and that means standing up to them. The government needs to step and hold these companies to account. They need to be looking very seriously at a windfall tax to put their profits back into the system to help struggling people.”
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Both David and Chris are taking part in the protest on Saturday, January 21 beginning at 11:30 am. The protest will be one of several Warm-Ups taking place across cities in the UK including Birmingham, Edinburgh and London. The campaign is supported by Don’t Pay UK, Fuel Poverty Action and Extinction Rebellion, amongst other groups organised under the Warm This Winter Coalition.
Don’t Pay UK is calling for energy bills to be capped at the rates they were in October 2021 before the “massive price hikes” started and for an end to the forced installation of prepayment meters. The group claims “thousands of the most vulnerable in society risk dying as a result of being unable to heat their homes”.
Moreso, Fuel Poverty Action is calling for “Energy For All” - a universal, free amount of energy to cover people’s necessities like heating, lighting and cooking. This would be paid for by ending all public money going towards fossil fuel subsidies, windfall taxes on energy company profits and implementing higher tariffs on excessive, luxury energy use.
The group’s campaign coordinator, Stuart Bretherton, said: “In the world’s sixth richest economy and one of Europe’s largest producers of oil and gas, failing to meet people’s basic energy needs is a political choice. Energy For All is a proposal for a system that works for people and the planet, not profiteers or polluters. The polar opposite of this is struggling people having their homes broken into, or meters switched remotely without warning to a method of payment that could prevent them from heating their home this winter.”
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