Rachel Eden, Lead Councillor for Housing & Neighbourhoods, has criticised Government Ministers, including LibDem Energy Secretary Chris Huhne, for sitting on their hands as householders are hit by ever higher fuel prices.
She quotes a report* just published by the Department of Energy & Climate Change as admitting that “between Q2 2010 and Q2 2011, domestic electricity prices rose by 4.0 per cent, domestic gas prices rose by 6.2 per cent, heating oils rose by 28.8 per cent, coal and smokeless fuels rose by 3.7 per cent, and the overall price paid for fuel and light rose by 7.3 per cent.”
“The period from Q2 2010 to Q2 2011,” she says, “corresponds exactly to the first year of this Tory-led Government. A Government which has increased VAT, seen wages stalled and the value of pensioners' Winter Fuel Allowance cut. We all need fuel and light, but Ministers have stood idly by as the gas and electricity suppliers have increased thier profit margins, squeezing budgets for people across Reading. We need a government willing to stand up for us on this and take action.”
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