The average household energy bill across England, Scotland, and Wales has risen by 1.2% after Ofgem increased its price cap. Simon Francis of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition warns that bills are now £700 higher annually than in winter 2020/21, with pensioners and disabled individuals hardest hit. He urges government investment in home insulation and energy efficiency to reduce costs and reliance on volatile gas markets. Report by Covellm. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00So what we're seeing today is energy bills going up by a further 1% and that means that on top of
00:06the 10% rise that we saw in October and also the record high energy prices that we're seeing more
00:14broadly, that the average household will be paying an extra £700 a year more for their energy than
00:21they were in winter 2020-21. So that's a huge amount of money for people to find every year
00:27just to use that same amount of energy and when you combine that with the wider cost of living
00:32crisis that people have been experiencing, of course this is going to make things very
00:36difficult for households. So those people who are going to be affected the most by these changes
00:40are especially going to be those older people who previously would have had the winter fuel payments
00:45but no longer have that and the people that we're most concerned about are those pensioners who are
00:50technically in poverty but have had the winter fuel payment taken away and the more than 1 million
00:55pensioners who've got disabilities and also will no longer receive the winter fuel payment. So those
01:01people are particular groups of concerns but of course the broader challenge of high energy bills
01:07affects almost every single household in the country. Everyone's having to find more just to
01:12use the same amount of energy and so that's why what we need to see from the government is them
01:17to invest in a programme to bring down energy bills by improving our energy efficiency and the
01:22insulation of our homes. That means that we'll be using less energy, it makes us less reliant on
01:27the global gas markets and also of course will save us money.