A 'bleak mid winter' faces millions

Today's announcement by Gordon Brown of the Government's response to soaring fuel bills is wholly inadequate. Whilst it's quite right to get more action on energy efficiency (and interesting to see a bit of a u-turn on 'Warm Front' funding having challenged the PM about it months ago), many pensioners and families still face a 'bleak mid winter'. The average combined gas and electricity bill used to be around £1,000 a year. Following the latest round of increases it is likely to rise to over £1,250. Against the backdrop, the increases in winter fuel payments for pensioners (announced earlier in the year) of £50 / £100 will still leave many people heavily out of pocket. And don't forget that this year's bills are already steeply up on last year's and have been causing real harship already.

It's clear the Government tried to get a deal from the energy companies on cash help for consumers and the energy companies told the Government where to go. This is the heart of the problem. Even a sober organisation like OFGEM says that the energy companies got a windfall of £9 billion from free pollution permits under an EU scheme. Why not force the companies to spend a good slug of this money on a mixture of energy efficiency, better prices for needy customers and upgrading the meters we all use so that we all have more information about our consumption?

Just as the Department of Transport seems to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the British Airports Authority, the Department for Business seems to be just a bit too pally with the energy companies. It's time we had a government that sided with the public for once.