People still need help with their energy bills this winter - Alex Sobel

The nights are drawing in, soon they will be cold, then freezing. But this winter will not have the government support of 2022 to help with rocketing energy bills. In the maelstrom of world events, focus has lessened on domestic issues, but a perennial problem remains: how are people on average salaries, or trying to make ends meet on benefits, going to keep warm?
By Alex Sobel
Published 7th Nov 2023, 06:00 BST

Let’s be clear about why bills are high. The Conservatives failed to build gas storage, failed to invest in green energy, and failed to retrofit home insulation. The impact of Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine could have been absorbed more readily if the basics had been done, but they weren’t, because the UK’s energy system is broken.

It’s in this context that Labour announced an Energy Independence Act, designed to protect the UK from external shocks. Further, it will establish Great British Energy - Labour's publicly owned energy company run on clean power.

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Earlier this year I travelled to Ukraine for the anniversary of Russia’s invasion along with Conservative MPs Bob Seely and Alicia Kearns. This bipartisan way of working can be replicated. It’s certainly the case on the most pressing issue of our age, climate chaos, and is why I am also on the Climate all-party parliamentary group (APPG).

A general view of a domestic home wireless room thermostat. PIC: Yui Mok/PA WireA general view of a domestic home wireless room thermostat. PIC: Yui Mok/PA Wire
A general view of a domestic home wireless room thermostat. PIC: Yui Mok/PA Wire

The war changed what we pay for our energy. If we want energy security in a volatile world, we have to invest in what we know works: we are an island, with plentiful sea and wind power. The cost of renewables is plummeting, so we have to ask why we don’t invest more at home. It will lower bills and create jobs: it’s economic good sense.

Everyone deserves to be warm in their own home in a British winter. That doesn’t mean expecting to walk around in shorts and t-shirts, just warm enough, that can’t be much to ask. People are taking public transport or visiting public spaces just to keep warm while oil and gas companies are posting colossal profits for shareholders. People faced impossible choices last year – and many more will too this year unless action