Autumn Statement fails the poorest households in cold and unsafe homes – says fuel poverty charity

New YouGov Polling by the charity shows 1 in 4 UK adults have found it difficult to pay their energy bills

Fuel poverty charity National Energy Action warns that the Autumn Statement fails the poorest households in cold and unsafe homes, as new polling reveals 1 in 4 UK adults have found it difficult to afford their energy bills in the past three months.

New polling by National Energy Action with YouGov reveals that 26% of UK adults – equivalent to 11 million people – say they have struggled to afford to pay their energy bills over the last three months.

Adam Scorer, chief executive of fuel poverty charity National Energy Action, says:

“The gaps in this Autumn Statement are devastating, especially for the poorest households. While increasing benefits in line with inflation is welcome, it does nothing to directly reduce energy bills or to help millions of low-income households not on benefits. An ‘average household’ is now paying £800 more per year to heat and power their homes since the start of the energy crisis.

“Energy debt is at record levels. Yet, today’s Autumn Statement does nothing to help. It fails millions of the poorest households who suffer, and sadly – in too many cases – die, because of cold and unsafe homes.

“With a VAT windfall from higher energy bills and underspent money that was allocated to help vulnerable people keep warm last year, it is clear that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had the headroom in the finances to act but he has done nothing to help the most vulnerable people keep warm and safe at home. The government hasn’t even delivered on the promise in the last Autumn Statement to consult on a social tariff for the poorest energy consumers from April next year, let alone introduce one. There was also no news on energy efficiency, leaving the most vulnerable in cold and expensive to heat homes this winter and beyond.”

Polling by YouGov, 2531 adults in the UK on 14 to 15 November 2023. Based on a UK adult population of 44m – extracted from UK Census data at https://www.data.gov.uk/dataset/76bda24c-7793-407c-8430-7cb69039e9b7/average-age-of-the-population-by-ethnicity