As a party we’ve recently launched a fuel poverty campaign - Warming Wales: On Your Side this Winter. As fuel poverty has increased dramatically in rural Wales as a direct result of UK Government policy we are urging Gordon Brown to take immediate action on this issue so that Pembrokeshire households will be able to adequately heat their homes this Winter.
Plaid Cymru have launched a website - http://www.warmingwales.plaidcymru.org - to highlight this campaign, and outline how we'd like to see the UK Government take action in order to rectify this issue. The website contains facts, ideas, useful contact numbers as well as a petition so that people can express their support for the campaign.
The average Welsh family is paying a staggering £517 more for gas and £236 more for electricity than they were five years ago. Because of this, households are now facing some tough decisions this winter - either to go into debt or cut back significantly on other expenditures, such as food, in order to be able to heat their homes properly. And that's not all, Age Concern estimates that more than 1,500 people will die in Wales this winter because of inadequate heating.
Gordon Brown needs to take on the energy companies, and impose a windfall tax on them. Similarly, he needs to put a stop to them charging higher rates on prepaid meter customers, compared to direct debit customers.
Without intervention and support, the situation will only get worse and with twenty five per cent of households already living in fuel poverty, this can't be allowed to happen. Winter fuel payments should also be extended, so that they are also given to disabled people, people with long term illnesses, cancer patients and families with disabled and young children.
We need to protect the most vulnerable within our society - people who Labour have been neglecting.
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