Are you worried about paying your energy bills this winter? Does your family struggle to keep warm at home? Netmums has teamed up with the Energy Bill Revolution to campaign for warm homes and lower bills. The Energy Bill Revolution’s Chrissie Mitchell (proud mother of 4-year-old twins!) tells us all about it…
We are facing an energy bill crisis, with millions of families struggling to heat their homes.
Netmums’ member survey has found that a shocking 1 in 4 households have had to choose between buying food and putting on the heating.
In a signal that high energy bills are turning into a national crisis, we also found that 84% of Netmums members are rationing heat as winter closes in. To avoid putting the heating on, 89% are wearing extra clothes, 56% turn off the heating when the kids are out and 45% are wrapping up in a duvet or blankets during the day!
Spiralling energy bills have left 88% more worried about the winter bills this year than last 
year, with 1 in 3 members very stressed as a result. Many are also worried about the health impacts on their children, with 1 in 5 saying they believe their children are ill more often as a result of living in colder homes.
The human cost of cold homes
Cold homes can have a terrible impact on both physical and mental health. The increased risk of death from cold homes to the elderly is well established, and illnesses caused by cold homes cost the NHS nearly one billion pounds each year.
But we have recently seen new evidence of the dreadful damage that can be done to the health of children and teenagers from living in a cold home – affecting everything from respiratory problems and infant birth weight, through to children’s mental health and educational achievement.
What’s the answer?
But there is a fair and permanent solution. We can have warm homes and reduce our energy bills.
Netmums has joined the Energy Bill Revolution – an alliance of 120 children’s charities, disability and health groups, consumer groups and businesses, calling on the Government to use the money it gets from our carbon taxes to make homes super-energy efficient.
This is the ONLY permanent solution to drive down bills and end the suffering caused by cold homes.
Bills are rising because gas, oil and coal prices are high, and the UK’s homes are some of the most energy inefficient in Europe – leaking heat from their doors, walls and windows. This means they cost much more than they should to heat and power.
From next year the Government will be collecting over £2 billion in carbon tax every year, rising to £4 billion by 2020 and £7 billion by 2027.
In time, this is enough to super-insulate every home in the UK – driving down bills and ending the suffering caused by cold homes. It could also create hundreds of thousands of jobs – exactly what we need to boost the economy!
Please take two minutes to sign our petition at www.energybillrevolution.org, email your MP, and ask all your friends and family to do the same. Thank you for your support.
Hope this works!