Responding to the energy crisis
Just six months ago, the idea of spaces where people could escape freezing homes was met with disbelief. Yet, it’s hastily become a reality.
With the rise in the cost of living raging throughout the UK, this winter’s set to be a challenge for many. In the UK, 16.4 million people will be in fuel poverty without Government support; that’s twice as many compared to 2020. In Southwark, over a third of residents live in areas with the highest levels of deprivation in England in badly insulated homes vulnerable to cold, damp and mould. These numbers are expected to spiral higher when the Government lifts the household energy price cap from April 2023. Medical experts have warned that if rising fuel bills make it impossible for households to heat their homes adequately, there will be devastating long term impacts on resident’s health, development and life expectancy.
These effects are not felt equally. Among those most affected include low income households, people from ethnic minorities, elderly people, people with disabilities and children. Yet organisations, such as Citizen’s Advice Southwark, report they’re also increasingly seeing people with decent paying jobs struggling to support their families evidencing the widespread severity of the crisis.
Members of our community are increasingly having to make tough decisions between heating their homes or eating. This shouldn’t be a choice people are having to make.
In response to this crisis, The Bridge and other community organisations are setting up warm spaces for members of the community to relax, connect with others and take part in activities in a welcoming, inclusive and safe space for free. These spaces have several aims including developing community cohesion, enabling participation in physical, creative and learning activities and reducing the impact of poverty.
Whilst it’s evident there’s a need for these spaces, it’s important we don’t let community responses to fuel poverty become entrenched as a norm in society; the same way food banks have. A decade ago, food banks were also an unfamiliar concept created as an emergency response to austerity. Now, the UK has established a sophisticated network of food banks across the country which are exploited as a long-term ‘sticking plaster’ solution for food insecurity. As the Poverty Alliance reiterated: “it is important to ensure that we do not repeat past mistakes where community responses to income crises become hardwired into the state’s response to poverty.”
The Bridge knows more needs to be done urgently to protect and respect people’s human rights to decent and warm housing.
The Government needs to take responsibility by creating a plan and policies to reform the welfare system and break the cycle of poverty, focusing on the distribution of wealth and power in society. It must reform the rental market to provide affordable, secure and warm housing, increase universal credit in line with inflation and increase wages across the board to support everyone living through this crisis. To urge change, you can write to your local MP calling them to take action. Turn2us have created a guide to help you write to your MP about the cost of living crisis.
Support your local Southwark community by telling them know about our HUB project or by donating. Your donation will help us to provide a free warm space, hot drinks and activities to support the wellbeing of our community and alleviate some of the pressures it’s facing during the cost of living crisis.
Alternatively, if you’re a local group, organisation or individual interested in volunteering to run an activity for our community members at HUB, we’d love to hear from you! Register your interest here.