Residents on Myatts Field South estate are fighting Lambeth Council who want to replace their communal heating system with individual boilers. Several have been to court after refusing to let workers into their flats to install the new system against their will.
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Seeing the light…
Introducing Switched On London, a new campaign coalition demanding clean, affordable and democratic energy in the capital through publicly owned energy.
www.switchedonlondon.org.uk | @SwitchedOnLDN
The floods in Cumbria are a reminder of how close to home the impacts of climate change are being felt. Three once-in-a-hundred year floods in ten years aren’t an indication of terrible misfortune, but of a new baseline. As leaders and business executives meet in Paris with the outcome uncertain, in London the fight for clean, affordable energy is being taken in a new direction.
In the face of a cartel of energy companies whose turn to renewables is far too slow — and whose profit-hungry business model leaves thousands struggling between heating and eating in the winter — Switched on London is a new campaign launching to build energy democracy in London. We demand that the GLA (Greater London Authority) sets up a new public energy company that works for people, not for profit.
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Take action against energy companies! I will. Southern Electric is ripping me off
Guest Blog by Kate Belgrave
On 25 November, Fuel Poverty Action will take action in parliament against energy companies and welfare cuts.
One of the reasons that I am going is that I have been in personal dispute with Southern Electric for about a year. They take a lot of money from me and I do not like it.
In the last year, Southern Electric has:
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Take action against fuel poverty deaths and welfare cuts – 25th Nov
If we can’t heat our homes, we have a right to warm up in any public building – including Parliament. We have a right to express our sadness, anger and solidarity with those who have suffered or are suffering.
On Wednesday 25th November, we will find out how many thousands of people died last winter because they couldn’t afford to heat their homes. Join Fuel Poverty Action and Lambeth Pensioners Action Group (LAMPAG) to take action in parliament to show support for those who have died. Come inside to WARM UP, and speak out to MPs, demanding an end to the unacceptable death and misery caused by fuel poverty! 
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Warm Homes Discount 2015/2016- How to get £140 off your electricity bill
The Warm Homes Discount has been extended for another year- which means there is another opportunity this winter to get £140 off your electricity bill.
You should automatically get the Discount if qualify for the discount if on 12 July 2015 your electricity supplier was part of the scheme AND you were getting the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit (even if you get Savings Credit as well).
If you don’t automatically qualify but you’re on a low income and/or you get certain means-tested benefits you may be entitled to the Discount. It’s worth checking with your supplier to see if you’re eligible and how to apply.
Scroll down to find your supplier- and note that the numbers of discounts given out are *limited* so it’s worth applying sooner rather than later, as they do ‘run out.’
If you are a customer at a smaller supplier, see if your supplier is signed up to the scheme here and follow the link through to their page to see if you are eligible.
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Social landlords lock tenants into energy companies and fuel poverty
Fuel Poverty Action has been contacted by a number of tenants from social housing estates across London who told us that they are unable to switch their energy suppliers for heating and hot water because their social landlord has ‘locked’ them in to buying from one supplier. In one case, residents of Myatts Field North estate have been locked in to buying their heating and hot water from e.on for 40 years under a Private Finance Initiative contract agreed by Lambeth council.
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What are YOU doing for Earth Day, Wednesday 22 April?
Guest Blog by Duncan Law, Biofuel Watch
Join Biofuel Watch in London, 11.00-13.00, the Grocer’s Hall, Princes St, EC2R 8AD, at #AXEDRAX, for a lively protest to expose and oppose burning biomass and coal..
Drax power station is the largest coal-fired power station and single biggest carbon emitter in the UK, and is now also the biggest biomass power station in the world. In return for trashing forests and digging up communities, Drax is receiving massive subsidies when it should have been closed down years ago.
For forests, communities and the climate, it’s time to #axedrax!
#AXEDRAX will unite Coal and Biomass campaigners with others who believe that UK energy policy is stupid and unjust.
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Join us for an energy rights workshop at Focus E15 mums' Real Estates project
Spent the winter suffering from your cold home? Worried about the next energy bill that’s due? Want to learn how to deal with energy companies so that you can help yourself and others?
Most of us have spent the winter hidden under piles of blankets in our homes because we can’t afford to heat them properly. Cold homes make us ill and cause misery. They even cause death: each winter thousands of pensioners die from cold homes. We’ve had enough of the rip-off Big Six energy companies and exploitative landlords profiteering from our suffering.
Join Fuel Poverty Action at the Focus E15 mums takeover at ‘Real Estates’ project at PEER Gallery Hoxton. Our energy rights workshop is on Wednesday 18th at 2pm, Peer Gallery, 97 & 99 Hoxton Street, N1 6QL, our friends the wonderful women at Skills Network have a great-looking workshop after us ‘Intentional Peer Support for the Housing Crisis’ so come down for the whole afternoon if you can! We’ll look at the energy problems we’re facing and what we can do about it and share information on our basic energy rights, including dealing with debt and problems with prepayment meters. Come along and learn your rights and help us plan collective action for warm, healthy homes for all!
Please join and share our facebook event. Hope to see you there!
DYING4HEAT IV: Unacceptable, accepted murder
Guest Blog By Dan Ashman
The simple fact is some people are wilfully preventing access to warmth, an essential for survival. The disregard to the sanctity of life of our fellow community members, of which last year, 7000; grandmas, grandads, mothers, fathers, aunts, uncles, sons and daughters were murdered for record high profit margins to serve the one percent. That is why Dying4Heat took place on Fleet Street in the City of London. It’s what I like to call unacceptable accepted murder.
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Fuel Poverty Action February News
Winter is always a busy time of year for Fuel Poverty Action. This February has been particularly hectic. Here’s a brief look at some of the things we’ve been up to and how you can get involved.
In the same week that it was announced that 3,000 people could die that week from cold homes, so-called energy regulator Ofgem suggested that people take packed lunches into work so as to save money to pay their rip-off energy bills. In a couple of hours we organised a pack-lunch protest to express our outrage that Ofgem is more interested in regulating our lunches than the Big Six energy companies. See coverage of our action on Russia Today and by Global Justice Now.
There was also action on fuel poverty in Kirklees that week with a ‘warm up theatre stunt’ in Huddersfield where they also handed out copies of our Energy Bill of Rights.
This month we’ve got two new blog posts on our website looking at some of the support and solidarity work that we do with people directly affected by fuel poverty. One is from an English for Speakers of Other Languages teacher at Tower Hamlets college describing how she is covering fuel poverty in her classes. Our second blog post is a victory we have helped secure on behalf of a pensioner couple being harrassed for years by Britsh Gas. This victory shows that we can have concrete and significant wins when we help each other out. If you’d like to get involved in supporting each other in taking on the Big Six energy companies and dodgy landlords who leave us to freeze, get in touch and visit our resources page here.
Thanks to the latest groups to sign up to our Energy Bill of Rights, including our first union – BECTU! Read our Energy Bill of Rights here and take a look at the impressive and diverse list of groups who support it.
Upcoming actions
This week is the Radical Housing Network week of action culminating with a mass action to Block the Budget on Monday 23rd February. There have been loads of actions happening across London organised by local housing action groups – it’s difficult to keep a track of, but the RHN are attempting to here. We’re organising a ‘warm homes bloc’ on the main action on Monday. Join us there to demand warm, healthy, secure homes for all!
Wednesday 25th February is a day of Britain wide solidarity with Tony Cox, an unemployed activist arrested by the police for supporting a fellow claimant at the Job Centre. We’re supporting the statement written by our friends Edinburgh Coalition Against Poverty and the Scottish Unemployed Workers Network. When dealing with the Job Centres, housing offices and the Big Six energy companies they want us isolated, alone and scared – they know that when we help each other, we can win!
Have we missed anything?! Let us know what action against fuel poverty you’re planning!