Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA<\/a>) amongst 1600 \u2018Red Wall\u2019 residents, found that excluding \u2018don\u2019t knows\u2019, a staggering 93 per cent backed the idea of scrapping VAT on energy bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTwo-thirds of those polled believed that \u201cheating you home was more of a necessity than a luxury\u201d, a figure that rises to 79 per cent of over 65s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is also evidence that people have already started to \u201cration\u201d their use of energy in the home. When asked \u2018in the past week, how often have you avoided heating your home as much as you would have liked specifically because of the associated costs?\u201d – one in five (20 per cent) replied \u201cevery day\u201d; one in seven (14 per cent) said \u201cat least 3 or 4 times\u201d and a further 20 per cent said \u201cat least once or twice\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And COVID \u2013 19 measures are adding to the problem, with a third of employed Red Wall residents asked (32 per cent) stating that they are now working from home more often than before the pandemic began, adding to home heating bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese detailed poll findings, in key political battleground seats, suggest that the Government has a major problem on its hands. Overwhelmingly, people want to see VAT scrapped on energy bills, something that Boris Johnson wanted as far back as 2016, but the Chancellor Rishi Sunak has blocked. Red Wall voters have sent a very clear signal in this poll of what they want,\u201d said Mike Foster CEO of Energy and Utilities Alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHeating a home is viewed as a necessity, yet consumers are consciously not doing so as a means to keep bills down. This should also ring alarm bells for Ministers. The least well off are being hit the hardest as they spend a disproportionate amount of their income on energy bills, compared to those who are better off. This should justify any action the Government takes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWorking from home has also led to increases in domestic energy bills, something the Government should acknowledge and again action such as scrapping VAT can be justified as a COVID related measure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn the longer term, to meet its Net Zero ambitions, the Government must focus on the impact upon the consumer. Minimising costs and disruption whilst giving consumers choice, will be key to whether it succeeds or fails. The sooner it indicates that gas networks will be switched to hydrogen, breaking away from the global fossil fuel markets that are behind the energy crisis, the better,\u201d Mike concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Facing unprecedented increases in energy bills, residents in 18 Red Wall constituencies in the north of England have…","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":14742,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","csco_display_header_overlay":false,"csco_singular_sidebar":"","csco_page_header_type":""},"categories":[1857],"tags":[2266,2269],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14741"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.padmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.padmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.padmagazine.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}