FUEL poverty campaigners erected wind turbines outside the Department of Energy in London today as higher energy prices came into effect, demanding lower bills and a fairer share of renewable energy.

Campaigners from Fuel Poverty Action (FPA), Greenpeace, 350.org and Energy Embargo for Palestine (EEfP) put up three turbines with blades reading “Make Green Fair,” “End Oil Wars” and “Energy For All.”

They also handed in a petition signed by more than 12,000 people calling for renewable energy for all.

FPA said that the price rises, which add an average of £221 to annual bills, were “wholly avoidable.”

“The UK’s dependence on fossil fuels is leaving us exposed when wars break out,” said campaigner Stu Bretherton.

“And the government is letting energy companies get away with blatant profiteering.

“More than £500 of our bills already goes to paying the profits that are lining shareholder pockets.”

FPA co-founder Ruth London said: “From wind farms and solar panels to heat pumps, heat networks, home retrofits, storage heaters and hot water tanks, everything must be geared to ensure sufficient, essential, clean energy, for all.

“Fairness will be the touchstone of success or failure.”

Green MP Hannah Spencer, who supported the action, said: “Today’s energy price increase puts an unacceptable burden on people who are already struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.

“It always falls on normal people to scramble to make ends meet while fossil fuel giants continue to make excess profits.

“The government has failed to protect people from this rise, so they need to act now to bring down these eye-watering energy costs for good.”

National Pensioners Convention general secretary Jan Shortt said it is “time to stop this merry-go-round of customers struggling to keep warm in the winter and ensure that those with decision-making powers understand that enough is enough.”

The Department of Energy and Net Zero said tackling the affordability crisis is “the government’s number one priority,” and will continue to “monitor the situation ahead of winter and plan for all contingencies” on top of its current measures while “doubling down on our mission for clean power to bring down bills for good.”