Someone will freeze to death unless fuel poverty is addressed, say Caithness campaigners
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A Caithness campaign group has warned that "someone will freeze to death" unless measures are put in place to limit the impact of fuel poverty.
Members of Caithness Roads Recovery (CRR) say elderly, vulnerable and disabled disabled people face the biggest difficulties in paying energy bills – and that next winter many will face a "stark choice" between heating and eating.
The campaigners are seeking urgent cross-party action to address the toll being taken on householders and businesses by spiralling costs of electricity, gas and other fuels, along with higher prices for petrol and diesel.
A detailed report has been prepared by CRR campaigner Morris Campbell setting out the history of energy supply leading to the current crisis. The document has been shared with Caithness Poverty Action Group (CPAG) as well as being sent to north politicians.
CRR began in February 2021 to press for improvements to the county's deteriorating roads. Its remit has extended since then to cover a range of other issues with the aim of supporting the recovery of Caithness in a wider sense.
Mr Campbell said: "Due to a combination of historical and recent factors, we are experiencing rising energy costs on a scale never seen before. More households will enter into the category called 'fuel poverty' and it is particularly the old, the vulnerable and the disabled who will face the greatest difficulties in paying bills.
"It is not an exaggeration to state that there will be, for many people and households, the stark choice between heating and eating. It is clear that action needs to be taken to alleviate the hardships that many will have at the present time and for the foreseeable future."
CRR has written to all Highland MSPs and the local MP suggesting a cross-party meeting – along with representatives of CPAG, Caithness Voluntary Group and CRR – to formulate a strategy.
Co-founder Iain Gregory said: "We have a few short months before the onset of winter, and we must have mechanisms in place to address the fuel poverty crisis before it is too late.
"Householders and businesses alike face impossible costs, and if we do not act then someone will quite literally freeze to death, and the choice between heating or eating will become impossible to avoid.
"Morris and I will attend any meeting with our MSPs and MP and will make the extent of the crisis abundantly clear."
The group says it has already received positive responses from MSPs Maree Todd, Emma Roddick and Rhoda Grant.
Ms Todd, the SNP MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, has shared a copy of a letter she has sent to Chancellor Rishi Sunak calling for action and pointing out that 33 per cent of households in the Highlands in 2021 were experiencing fuel poverty, and 22 per cent were facing extreme fuel poverty.
CRR says it is aware that many of the levers are reserved to Westminster but argues that some help can be delivered by Holyrood. The list of suggested options for the two governments includes:
- A windfall tax on large companies
- A reduction in VAT on energy bills
- A more substantial cut in fuel duty on road fuels.
- More focused community benefits" from wind farm companies and other developers
- The formation of a national energy company to supply electricity and gas at near cost price
- Increases in Universal Credit and other benefits to mitigate costs
- A reduction in income tax
- Emergency subsidies to consumers falling below a certain income level
- Price capping on heating oil, biomass and tank gas
- Action to reduce the "unfair" distribution costs in the far north
- Suspension of the current green levies
In her letter to the Chancellor, Ms Todd highlighted the "devastating and disproportionate impact" the cost-of-living crisis is having on households in her constituency and across the region.
She said she was contacted regularly by constituents "struggling to make ends meet".
Ms Todd added: "The greatest injustice of the energy pricing system is that the Highlands is energy rich, with renewable assets in abundance, but, despite many of our rural communities being net exporters of green electricity, households are still presented with some of the highest energy bills in the whole of the UK. The Highlands should be reaping the benefits of the energy it produces, but instead the UK government has made the policy choice to penalise the region."