THIS winter, many British people will be shivering in their homes. For others the cold will cause severe illness and avoidable death.

There is a simple answer to fuel poverty. Let the energy giants pay. Their profits are enormous because their prices are too high. Exploitative pricing and low corporate taxes ought to be the subject of action by the government.

A recent note from the House of Commons Library says the following: “The charity National Energy Action (NEA) has estimated that the total number of UK households in fuel poverty increased from around 4.5 million in October 2021 to 6.7 million in October 2022. Their latest estimate is 5.6 million for January 2024.”

That is households.  Not the number of individuals affected. The number of people living in the households is more than double that figure. It was recently estimated that there were 4,950 excess winter deaths last year in the UK in 2022/23, which were down to people living in cold and damp homes. This data came from the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.

Meanwhile the corporate energy giants were swilling in an ocean of profitability. In 2021, SSE achieved the highest energy generation profit at £689m British pounds. ScottishPower that year made £372m. The End Fuel Poverty Coalition estimated that the largest 20 energy giants made a total of £420bn since the start of the energy crisis. This is an enormous amount of money, especially when you measure it alongside the £1.4bn which it would cost to reinstate the winter fuel allowance.

Our country is richer than it’s ever been, but the wealth is not shared fairly. In my view the government should be looking to raise revenues from the wealthiest in society and the big corporations, not from the poorest.

Although the Tories left the government with £22 billion worth of unfunded spending commitment, there is no reason to reinstate austerity. Unite the Union has proposed that the government should consider a 1 per cent tax on the wealthiest which would raise £25bn. The richest 250 people in the country have increased their wealth by £533bn since 2009, they are the ones alongside the big corporations who, in a fair and just society, should contribute. I have made this argument for many years. These reforms are basic common sense, but they are bitterly resisted from some quarters. The government should stand up to them. 

But there is another step which could be taken immediately. As a country we could and indeed we should take action to  limit outrageous levels of price rises by mega-corporations designed to drive up their profits on winter fuel welfare payments at the expense of consumers.

The truth  is that the passing of a law which taxes wealth would take time. Equally direct intervention by a publicly owned Great British Energy will undoubtedly help, but not in the short term. We need action now as we move from summer into autumn and then into winter.

We have mechanisms in place to restrict energy prices. They ought to be used.

Price inflation has a massive impact on all people but energy pricing is out of control and is especially devastating for the poor, whose energy prices make up more than 10 per cent of their income. The fact of the matter is that unjustifiable price increases are driven by corporate greed and that the unrestrained market pays no heed whatsoever to social justice.

Fat cats counting their profits at Christmas while the poorest shiver reminds me of Dickens novels. In 21st-century Britain the image shows the state which our country fell into during the Tory years. We need rapid action to introduce a different social order based on fairness and justice.

Jon Trickett is Labour MP for Normanton & Hemsworth.