A quarter of Brits are living in fuel poverty as energy bills rocket - mirror.co.uk

Consumer Focus warned as many as 6 million could be forced to choose between a hot meal or heating their homes this winter.

Fuel poverty hits middle classes

Ann Robinson, director of consumer policy at uSwitch.com, says: “Rocketing energy prices mean that the middle classes are no longer immune to social ills such as fuel poverty. The fact is that we can now find the fuel poor amongst all walks of life and in all types of households. Start to factor in housing costs such as mortgage and rental payments and we are left with the shocking image of a third of all British households living in fuel poverty.

“The sad truth is that consumers are paying a heavy price for this country’s disjointed, incoherent and unaffordable energy policy.

The 'green tax' ruse that punishes us all | Mail Online

Last year the Government raised an astonishing £40billion from so-called ‘green taxes’ — with motorists alone paying a record £27billion in fuel duty.

These punitive charges were justified by ministers on the grounds the country needs to do its part to ‘save the environment’ and change the polluting behaviour of drivers and big business.

Yet, as a committee of MPs reveals today, the money was simply swallowed up by the Treasury like any other tax rather than being spent on better public transport or reducing carbon emissions.
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Meanwhile, somewhat inconveniently for the green lobby, scientists have just concluded that we are headed for a global temperature drop.

For all our sakes, ministers must drop their dogma about climate change — the science of which remains shrouded in doubt — and, wherever possible, give the country a break from green taxation.