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29/10/2011 :“As fuel prices rocket, Government must listen to Age UK, says Labour”:
As an Age UK report is published suggesting that 200 mainly elderly people will die every day this winter across England and Wales of cold-related diseases, Labour Lead Councillor for Health Bet Tickner says the Government must take this as a signal to get a grip on fuel prices, and to reconsider its cut in the Winter Fuel Allowance.
“The average price of heat and light has gone up over 7% in the last year,” she says, “but pensions have not increased at anything like that rate, and the Government has cut the Winter Fuel Allowance. There are now almost five million people in England and Wales living in fuel poverty, which is when you have to spend more than one pound in every ten pounds coming in just to keep warm. Keeping warm is so important for older people, of those 200 people who are expected to die from cold every day this winter 95% will be over 65, and we know of course that some of them will be from Reading.
“While the Council and groups like Age UK will continue to advise people to keep warm and to support home insulation schemes,” she adds, “the Government needs to play its part by getting a grip on energy prices, rather than just urging people to shop around, when changing suppliers is a hassle, sometimes an expensive hassle, and does not under the present system get you a better deal for long. I hope Reading’s MPs, both of whom are members of the Government, accept that the Government has a responsibility to reduce cold-related deaths, a responsibility which in all conscience they must not duck.”
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