“I’ve heard about families with young children getting into bed at 6pm,” says Ruth London, a campaigner with Fuel Poverty Action. “That’s just devastating. That’s not what should be happening to children – to be in bed because the house is too cold.”
Her words echo a story I heard recently from Laura, a mother of three young children in Sheffield. Laura wants her children to be able to “run round and not be tied down to one room, having to be stuck under blankets”. But this winter, she said, rising prices, a draughty rented home, and her partner’s drop in income meant she’d had little choice but to huddle up in bed with the kids in the evening. Her own health was suffering from “all the stress of bills and prices” and the feeling that “you’re stuck in a corner and there’s no way out”.
As the government faces widespread criticism for failing to act to help us keep our homes warm more affordably – and at less cost to the climate – a feeling of powerlessness is palpable for many. The idea that fuel poverty is just another thing more of us will have to “learn to live with” is devastating.
