It is shocking that, within Britain, there are 4.5 million families who live in fuel poverty, in homes that are cold, damp and quite frankly unsafe for human habitation.  For one of the richest countries in the world, this is a shambolic state of affairs, where people are now having to choose between whether to feed their families or provide heating so they do not get cold.  Today is your chance to bring this outrageous situation to a end.

15 February is Fuel Poverty Awareness Day.  The aim of this day is to raise awareness of fuel poverty and the importance of  living in a warm and safe home.  This day has been coordinated by End Fuel Poverty Coalition (EFPC) member, National Energy Action (NEA)  and concludes the Warm and Safe Homes Campaign.  This is a scheme that I feel passionately about and I hope the people of Bolton South East will get involved with it.

The official definition of fuel poverty, as provided by Public Health England, is that a household is in fuel poverty if: “its income is below the poverty line and energy costs are higher than a typical household”.   The health costs of this can be detrimental, with our National Health Service having to spend £3.6 million per day to treat the effects of fuel poverty, with 15,000 deaths last year alone attributed to cold homes.  Public Health England states that fuel poverty can have an adverse effect on not only respiratory and circulatory problems, but it can also affect someones mental health.  This should not be happening in 21st century Britain and this has been going on for far too long.

This needs to end, and I encourage everyone to get involved.

You can:

• show your support on social media by using the hashtags #FuelPovertyAwarenessDays and #WarmSafeHomes.  Make sure you follow the EFPC (@EndFuelPoverty).
•  change your profile picture on twitter to the Fuel Poverty Awareness Day logo.
• take part in Nation’s Biggest Housewarming by hosting your own charity events, whether it be a cake sale or a dinner party. Follow this link to register your event  https://www.nea.org.uk/the-difference-you-can-make/housewarming/. Don’t forget to share any photos from your event on Twitter using the hashtags #neahousewarming or #neamugshot.

For far too long, the people of Britain have been held to ransom by fuel companies raising prices to extortionate levels, just to help make the shareholders richer, this needs to end now.  People are dying because they cannot afford to warm their homes in case they miss other bills or have to feed their families.  This is a damning indictment of everything wrong with 21st Century Britain.  In 2019, people should not be worrying about heating there homes, I hope you join the fight to end fuel poverty.