FUEL poverty campaigners will stage a protest outside the UK Government’s headquarters in Scotland on Saturday.
The demonstration outside Queen Elizabeth House in Edinburgh has been organised by the Edinburgh End Fuel Poverty Coalition.
It says the aim is to deliver a message to Prime Minister Liz Truss that the promise she has made to offset the impact of soaring energy bills does not go far enough and that further action is required to stop one million Scottish families falling into fuel poverty.
Edinburgh End Fuel Poverty Coalition spokesman Colin Fox criticised Truss for saying that “we must all endure the pain rising energy bills bring”.
Fox said: “The pain, as she calls it, is not being suffered equally. Her promise to freeze household energy bills for two years does not protect those already forced to go without the gas and electricity they need.
“As National Energy Action chief executive Adam Scorer pointed out last week, the poorest families have already been hit hard by earlier price rises. The October freeze leaves them deep in trouble. NEA estimates there are 6.7 million households across the UK, one million in Scotland, trapped in fuel poverty.
“The £2500 energy ‘price cap’ is not much use to those who are already in fuel poverty – defined as paying 10% of your income, once housing costs are deducted, on this single bill – and do not have £2500.
“Those earning less than £27,000 a year are being left in fuel poverty even after Truss’s latest intervention.
“We are calling on the UK Government to provide extra financial assistance to those 6.7m families, and in the longer run to diversify away from expensive and polluting fossil fuels, to devote more money to energy efficiency initiatives, to equalise prices for those using ‘unregulated fuels’ – such as heating oil or wood – and to return the energy supply industry to public hands.”
The rally will take place at noon. Speakers will include Fox, Alba MP Kenny McAskill, Mick Hogg of the RMT union, Jane Loftus of the CWU union, Fraser Scott from Energy Action Scotland and Natalie Reid from the Scottish Socialist Party.
