Fuel Poverty Concerns Follow Scottish Power Price Hike

Scottish Power has announced that its electricity and gas prices are to rise by 10% and 19% respectively, a move that has dismayed campaigners against fuel poverty.

1/3 of Scottish households live in fuel poverty and this announcement, which other energy suppliers are sure to follow, seems certain to increase that number. Households are deemed to be in fuel poverty if they spend more than 10% of their income on fuel to heat their homes to a satisfactory level (21 degrees centigrade in the main living area, 18 elsewhere).  At a time when inflation is currently running at over 4%, wages are stagnating and welfare benefits are being cut, this rise in prices will be simply unaffordable for the poorest and most vulnerable families.

Citizens Advice Scotland has already stated that many people are having to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table. Food inflation now stands at 4.9%.The UK Government changed from the Retail Price Index to the lower Consumer Price Index for the uprating of benefits in April. CPI was just 3.1% in September 2010 and this is the figure that was used for uprating benefits in April 2011, at that time RPI was 4.6%. The CPI does not include energy and housing costs.

This will affect all consumers, but the hardest hit will be the poorest and most vulnerable households, already affected by benefit cuts.

The Scottish Government has committed to ensuring nobody in Scotland lives in fuel poverty by 2016, a commitment that will be undermined by these massive price hikes. Read the Scottish Government’s advice to local authorities on fuel poverty.

The Co-op have recently announced a move in to the supply of energy and promise fair prices and transparency. You can compare your current fuel bill in a simple process that will only take a couple of minutes.

Tags: Housing, Scottish Government, Welfare, poverty