Posts

Posted on

✊ TAKE ACTION IN JANUARY!

On January 19th, the Office for National Statistics will announce the number of excess winter deaths last year. Fuel Poverty Action call on our partners and allies to join us taking action around this date.

Register to Take Action!

🕰 VIGILS

Around January 19th, hold a minute’s silence in your local area to commemorate those who’ve lost their lives as a result of fuel poverty. Invite friends, family, colleagues or comrades to join you in a public place and contact us on [email protected] so we can connect you with others near you. 

📍 In London join a ‘Funeral March’. Meet at George V Statue, Old Palace Yard, Westminster at 11.30am for speeches and a minute’s silence before moving to Downing St. Wear black and bring a white flower.

(Nearest accessible tube station Westminster, Jubilee Line. Buses 3, 11 or 253 to nearby.)

📍Cardiff – On 19th January, meet at 11am in Cardiff Central Square.

📍Brighton – On 20th January, meet at 10.30am at the Brighton War Memorial, Old Steine.

📍Leicester – On 21st January, meet 11am at Leicester Town Hall.

Bring placards saying – ‘Energy For All’, ‘Cold Homes Kill’, ‘End Winter Deaths’ and ‘BanForcedPPMs‘.

📱 TAKE ACTION DIGITALLY 

Sign and share the 38 Degrees petition calling on energy companies to stop forcing customers onto prepayment meters!

Use our template text to phone (020 7219 8497) or email ([email protected]) Grant Shapps’ office demanding the government #BanForcedPPMs.

🔥 WARM-UPS

On January 21st, organise or participate in a Warm-Up protest. Warm-Ups were started by Fuel Poverty Action on the principle that if we can’t afford to heat our homes, we have the right to go to any public building and keep warm there. See this guide to organising one.

Warm-Ups so far expected in:

  • Edinburgh – Meet at 9.50am outside Canongate Kirk.
  • Exeter – Meet 12pm at the bottom of Grenadier Road, EX1 3QN.
  • Liverpool – Meet 11.30am at Pier Head by the Ferry Terminal.
  • North London – Meet 12pm at Cavendish Square Gardens, W1G.
  • South London – Meet 12pm The Venue, 5-7 Middle Street, Croydon.
  • Birmingham (Jan 22nd) – Meet 11am outside Octopus Energy Sales Hub.

Contact [email protected] if you’re interested in Warm-Ups.

📢 OUR DEMANDS

We demand a government ban on enforced switching to prepayment meters and the implementation of Energy For All.

💻 MEDIA PACK

Use our template press release guide to amplify your Vigil or Warm-Up.

See our social media pack to connect actions together online.

#BanForcedPPMs #EnergyForAll #ColdHomesKill #EndWinterDeaths

Posted on

National Day of Action on Fuel Poverty

As part of the Warm This Winter coalition’s National Day of Action, Fuel Poverty Action and allied groups conducted ‘Warm-Ups’ in towns and cities across the UK to demand Energy For All.

Over the weekend of December 3rd and 4th, Warm-Ups took place in Brighton, Bristol, Glasgow, Hastings, Islington, Liverpool, Oxford and Stratford.

Register: Upcoming Warm-Up training on Wednesday 21st December, 7pm.

Around 9.30am, Glasgowegians Warmed-Up outside Scottish Power HQ and sat down with blankets, sleeping bags and hot water bottles, singing and dancing, and chanting “Bills too high, pay too small, we need Energy For All!” to stay the morning chill away.

In London, Just Stop Oil supporters got cosy in beds and sofas in Harrods while FPA and Don’t Pay members warmed up in the British Museum.

In Hastings, locals entered a branch of Barclays bank – while others warmed up in shopping centres around the country.

You can support the campaign by emailing your MP to demand a Universal basic energy allowance and calling on the government to keep us #WarmThisWinter.

Posted on

Day of Action December 3rd!

On December 3rd we are participating in Warm This Winter’s Day of Action on fuel poverty!

In collaboration with Don’t Pay UK and other movements, we are conducting ‘Warm-Ups’ in towns and cities across the country. Warm-Ups are entering and occupying a space as a group to keep warm and demand action on fuel poverty.

Warm-Ups are being planned in:

  • Brighton – Meet 10.30 at Clarence Square
  • Bristol – Meet 12.00 Bond St
  • Glasgow – Meet 08.30 Glasgow Central
  • Hastings – Meet 12.30 207-8 Queens Road
  • Islington – Meet 12.00 Russell Square Gardens
  • Liverpool – Meet 12.00 Church Street
  • Manchester – Meet 13.00 Piccadilly Gardens
  • Oxford (Dec 4th) – Meet 12.00 Carfax Tower
  • Stratford – Meet 12.00 Stratford Westfield Stairs

And more!

Contact [email protected] to be connected with local organisers or if you’d like to organise your own.

Posted on

Warm-Up Training

We’re teaming up with Don’t Pay UK to give Warm-Up training! 🤝

What’s a Warm Up? – It’s entering and occupying a public space as a group to keep warm. We take these actions due to unaffordable fuel costs at home and to demand action.

Register here – 🕗Wed, 16 November 2022, 19:00 – 20:30 GMT

#EnergyForAll #WarmUp

Posted on

Energy For All Petition Hand In – October 19th

FPA are campaigning for Energy For All, a universal, free band of energy to pay for necessities of heating, lighting and cooking. Please join over 600,000 people in signing our petition supporting the demand and share far and wide. Sign up for updates and to get involved!

We will be taking our petition to Downing Street on Wednesday 19th October at 2.30pm. We will assemble at George V Statue, Old Palace Yard, at 1pm to hear speeches. We hope you can join us on the day!

Can’t be there in person? Support #EnergyForAll from home by sharing social media content and joining our digital action. See our toolkit.

Posted on

E4A Campaign Welcome Calls

Get involved: End fuel poverty in the UK and demand climate justice!

We are organising to win Energy For All and that means building a movement capable of shifting power.

Our next fortnightly welcome call takes place October 5th! Register here.

Join a call to learn more and find your place in the movement!

Posted on

Press Release: FPA and DPAC protest Ofgem’s abusive standing charge policies

Fuel Poverty Action and Disabled People Against Cuts have together written to Ofgem CEO Jonathan Brierley about the gross injustice of the present standing charges, including loading the cost of failed suppliers onto this part of people’s bills. [1] They say

“It is appalling that yet again Ofgem is punishing low income customers for its own failed regulation and the upside down priorities of the energy industry. …This is consistent with the blinkered approach that has led you to give “too much benefit to companies at the expense of consumers”, in the words of Christine Farnish, the Ofgem director who resigned last week.

Ofgem has claimed (2) that high standing charges are the only way to protect high users, some of whom are people with health needs for electricity, eg for electrical medical equipment. But the two groups suggest that Ofgem’s obligation to vulnerable customers is being abused as an excuse for policies that impoverish and endanger thousands of people, including many who are disabled people. They name instead several alternative ways to protect people with high energy needs – without impoverishing vast numbers of low income customers.

With Fuel Poverty Action’s proposal of Energy For All (e4a) each household would be entitled, free, to enough energy to cover basic needs, but people would pay a higher tariff for what they use above that amount. This would offer much needed security to all – including those who need more because of their health, disabilities, housing conditions, or family size. It would be paid for by the higher per-unit tariff on excess use, by windfall taxes and by ending the millions of pounds now poured daily into fossil fuel subsidies.

Other options listed include extensions of the Warm Home Discount, social tariffs, better disability benefits, and good safe insulation for vulnerable customers. And they say that companies that cannot fulfil their purpose of providing the energy people need at a cost they can afford, could – and must – be brought back into public hands.

Ruth London from FPA comments,

“Instead of looking at real, proportionate, workable changes to the current upside down pricing framework, Ofgem has chosen to continue hitting low income users harder than affluent neighbours. The standing charge means that however much they cut down their usage many people will never be able to pay their bills.”

Paula Peters of DPAC says,

“I’m a low energy user because I am terrified to switch it on and worrying about costs all the time. It’s making me permanently anxious as it is all of us. Last winter I was in a lot of pain with a cold house. I needed NHS intervention: a steroid injection and a Nebuliser at A & E.”

[1] https://www.fuelpovertyaction.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Letter-to-Ofgem-re-decision-on-Standing-Charge-August-2022.pdf
[2] https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/follow-our-review-arrangements-recovering-costs-supplier-failure