Martin Lewis explains inflation and energy bills
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As voters across the UK heading to the polls today to have their say, a number of key issues are likely to be on their minds. One of these is the growing cost of living and the energy crisis, as cash strapped households struggle to heat their homes due to high energy costs. On April 1, Ofgem raised the price cap on household energy bills by 54 percent to £1,971 per year.
Speaking to Express.co.uk, Alan Brown, the SNP’s spokesman on Energy and Climate Change, said that even though it’s a local election, the energy crisis is likely to hurt the Conservatives’ chances in Scotland.
He said: “The cost of living can have an impact on local elections and certainly, there’s a key message that the Government is not doing enough.
“Part of the SNP campaign is to send Boris a message and let me know to think very carefully before voting Conservative.
“But of course, local elections should be run on local considerations as well, based on who is going to provide the best local services- who has the best track record in recent years.
“It should be very much localised, and I’d like to think that the people of Scotland are looking at what SNP has done and take that into account, as well the high cost of living prices.”
According to the National Energy Action, an estimated 6.5 million households in the UK have been placed in fuel poverty following the price cap increase.
This is a major increase of two million households, jumping from than 50 percent from 4.5 million six months ago.
According to the NEA, this puts almost a quarter of all UK households are in fuel poverty, where they spend a large percentage of their income on energy bills.
Mr Brown, the MP for Kilmarnock and Loudoun said: “It’s right to put the blame on the Tories for not doing enough to mitigate the high energy bills from before.
“It will have an impact and I think it’s safe to say that the Tory vote will go down when compared to 2017, and that will be one of the reasons.”
Local elections aside, Mr Brown also told Express.co.uk that more broadly, the energy crisis, and the Government’s focus on wind energy from Scotland would help the SNP on a national scale as well.
He said: “I know constituents who have contacted me, who are really frustrated seeing energy bills go up.
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“They see us produce oil and gas and renewable energy that’s supposed to help us, so why are we paying more money?
“There’s a real frustration at that.”
Scotland is rich in wind power, with it being able to generate 97.4 percent of its total energy needs from renewable sources.
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