Woman holding energy bill in front of radiator (Image: Getty)
One in three say their physical health is impacted as people keep their homes cold to save on energy bills.
The new data reveals one third (31 percent) of people feel that their physical health has been negatively impacted by decisions to save money on heating their home.
The figures come after the energy regulator increased the energy price cap by 6.4 percent – meaning a household using a typical amount of gas and electricity will see their annual bill rise by £111 a year to £1,849.
The data also follows ongoing reports that NHS bed occupancy is at its highest level this winter, with thousands remaining in hospital despite being medically fit for discharge.
Cold homes increase illnesses in vulnerable (Image: Getty)
The figures, gathered from a survey of 2,000 people across the UK from Cadent, the UK’s largest gas network, shine the spotlight on hard choices struggling households are having to make when it comes to heating their home or facing potential health problems from cold, with more than two fifths (44 percent) feeling more financially vulnerable this winter than last winter.Living in a cold house increases the risk of illnesses or death among vulnerable people. Carl Heneghan, an urgent care GP and Professor of Evidence Based Medicine at Oxford University said: “It is well known that at temperatures below 18 degrees celsius people are more at risk of health problems such as heart attacks, exacerbated asthma or lung conditions and respiratory infections. If the government is wedded to a policy of reducing the winter fuel allowance alongside rising energy the government needs a connected policy to ensure we are not worsening people’s health that can lead to illness, hospitalisations and complications. This is especially the case given that we have an ageing population, and half of over 65’s are living with one or more chronic conditions – many of whom are housebound.”A Department for Energy Security and Net Zero spokesperson said: “Everyone deserves to live in a warm, comfortable home. We have set out proposals to help almost three million more households, including almost one million with children, with support to pay their energy bills next winter.“Our Warm Homes Plan will make homes cheaper and cleaner to run, rolling out upgrades from new insulation to solar and heat pumps – with up to 300,000 homes to benefit from upgrades later this year.”Up to half a million households could also be lifted out of fuel poverty by 2030 in major boost to standards in the private rental sector.”
Pensioner warming hands on radiator (Image: Getty)
The study follows a report last week which concluded most of Britain’s skyrocketing electricity bills are being blamed on subsidies for renewables and Net Zero policies. Since 2015, the electricity price cap – a limit on how much energy suppliers can charge for power – has jumped from £664 to £994 per year in today’s prices – an increase of £330, or 50 per cent over a decade, a new analysis shows.
Despite the government pointing the finger at rising gas prices on the global market, Professor Gordon Hughes, an economist at Edinburgh University, found the biggest culprit of rising bills is the explosion in subsidies for renewable energy and Net Zero policies which account for forty per cent of the increase in our electricity bills since 2015. These costs now represent £223 of our annual charges. This includes subsidies to solar and wind companies and fees to pay for backup systems – either gas or nuclear – to compensate for the fact that wind and sun are erratic.
Professor Hughes, former senior energy advisor to the World Bank, said the other costs making up our bills – wholesale electricity prices, network costs, and supplier costs – contributed to far less – a total of 20 percent – of the overall increase.
The government has refuted the claims and blamed the high energy bills on rising gas bills due to “volatile gas markets.”
However Professor Hughes said: “The current government claims that the increase in electricity bills is due to reliance on gas generation and exposure to European gas prices. That is simply wrong. The largest contribution to the increase in inflation-adjusted bills over the decade is due to the increase in renewable subsidies and other policy costs.”
He added: “Wholesale electricity costs are outside the government’s influence. That is not the case for renewable subsidies and policy costs. Those are the consequences of decisions made by this government and previous governments.”
Ed Miliband’s Net Zero policy fuelling price rises (Image: Getty)
Professor Hughes also highlighted British households are now paying far more for energy than many other major economies. “In the UK, we pay nearly 2.5 times more than in the US MidWest and almost five times the price of electricity in China,” he said.
Chief Executive of Net Zero watch – an organisation which aims to highlight the implications of Net Zero policies, Andrew Montford said: “The UK government’s Net Zero strategy is nothing short of an unprecedented gamble. Britain is attempting to transition away from proven and reliable energy sources in favour of experimental technologies, many of which are unproven at scale. The country is being forced into a radical transformation with an unrealistic deadline of just 27 years, ignoring the immense financial burden on ordinary citizens.
The government’s claim that Net Zero will ultimately lead to lower bills is based on assumptions that do not hold up under scrutiny. Even as renewables account for an increasing share of the energy mix, prices continue to rise. Meanwhile, industries are struggling, and British households are being pushed to the financial brink.”
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “These claims are simply false, based on inaccurate readings of spurious methodology. The reality is that every family and business has paid the price of rising energy bills, which are a direct result of Britain’s vulnerability to volatile global gas markets.
“By failing to invest at scale over many years in the clean, secure, homegrown power our country needs, we have been left exposed to the consequences of events beyond our borders.
“The only way to bring down bills for good is by making Britain a clean energy superpower, which will give us energy security, protect consumers, create jobs and tackle the climate crisis.”
Energy bills pushing households to the brink (Image: Getty)
Frances Griffin, 64, who has a severe lung disease, has struggled to cope since energy prices started to rise last year. Ms Griffin, a former teacher and mother of three is now paying £500 a month in bills just to heat the front room of her Birmingham house that she isolates in. Due to her illness she can no longer work and cannot afford to heat other rooms in her house and uses a heated blanket to stay warm. As she has a small and erratic independent income source she does not qualify for any energy subsidies and says she has “fallen through the cracks.”
Living in cold temperatures makes her vulnerable to chest infections, makes her breathing difficult and triggers repeated coughing fits. She said: “I was diagnosed with lung disease 7 years ago and my lungs are affected by the temperature. The energy prices have massively jumped as well as all the , council tax, water bills and food bills. I layer myself up but when it gets cold I cough all day. It’s scary.”
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