“We used to put £20 a week in and now it’s more like £50,” says Gary*, discussing his family’s pre-paid electric meter. “That’s how bad it’s got, so we just knocked everything off. There’s nights where we just sit there in the dark.”
Gary and I had a long conversation about fuel poverty, but it is this image of him, his partner, daughter and granddaughter – three generations of one family – sitting at home with all the lights off that sticks with me.
Gas usage is even more rationed in Gary's home, in the forgotten outskirts of Cardiff. Last winter, there were only three weeks where the family put the radiators on.
