The End Fuel Poverty Coalition has estimated that 4,950 excess winter deaths in the UK were caused by living in cold homes during 2022/23.
Records also indicate that when the temperature in the UK drops below 4C, the level of excess winter deaths sky-rockets.
The average temperature last winter was 4.3C.
While December was exceptionally warm, average daily temperatures for the UK in January dipped to -2 and in some places were -10.
The Government continues to rely on Warm Homes Discounts, Cold Weather Payments and Winter Fuel Payments as the measures of support to households, however these are limited in eligibility and impact.
This winter the Government refused demands to support households through an Emergency Energy Tariff and a help to repay scheme for those in energy debt. But the Government’s approach is an increasingly dangerous strategy with the effects of climate change taking hold.
The Met Office official guidance is that El Nino winters could become more common as global temperatures increase.
With 2023 being declared as the hottest year on record, campaigners have urged politicians to grasp the seriousness of the situation.
Figures from the Warm This Winter campaign show that 8.3m adults are living in cold damp homes and as temperatures drop, these conditions go from being uncomfortable to downright dangerous.
But while households struggle, ministers are sitting on their hands and leaving matters of life and death to chance.
Instead of taking action on energy bills, they have allowed energy firms to restart using the courts to force households onto prepayment meters and have now ruled out reform to energy tariffs to help those most in need.
They would rather play politics with a ridiculous Oil & Gas Licencing Bill that will do nothing to improve energy security or lower bills than take meaningful action to help households struggling right now.
Jan Shortt, General Secretary of the National Pensioner’s Convention, said: “We are very concerned at the level of disinterest shown by the Government in the welfare of older people at a time when the temperature is dropping well below freezing.
“Older people are struggling with the cost of energy and other inflated bills, we know many are afraid to turn the heating on.
“Add this to the decision by Ofgem and the government to allow the force-fitting of energy prepayment meters to resume, while energy providers continue to enjoy inflated profits, smacks of abandonment of those struggling to pay their bills without any relief on the horizon.”
Greenpeace UK’s climate campaigner Georgia Whitaker said: “This is a national scandal. The UK has the least insulated homes in Western Europe. We’ve known this for years, yet every year thousands of people are dying as a result and our government is doing nothing to fix the problem.
“Insulating homes at speed and scale right across the UK would drastically reduce these unavoidable deaths, as well as the cost of living crisis by lowering bills and slashing household emissions.
But until this happens, this shameful government negligence will continue to cost people their lives, and without climate leadership the government will be punished at the ballot box.
Rodney Sadd
supporter of NPC
Crowland
