Derry City and Strabane District Council has acknowledged with alarm the rising energy costs setting up a winter of hardship for many people.
A motion tabled by People Before Profit Councillor Maeve O’Neill called for Council to do everything it can to protect the most vulnerable in our communities and to examine how Council can use its hardship fund to protect people in the Council area facing fuel poverty.
Cllr O’Neill stated that, ‘Excess winter deaths resulting from fuel poverty are preventable, however for some reason they seem to be accepted here. On top of these preventable deaths, we know that many more people will have suffered the preventable health impacts of living in a cold, damp home.’
‘The system here is completely letting people down. Stormont have not acted yet and how can we be confident that they will act effectively. Community services on the ground are doing an excellent job in trying to respond to this emergency situation as are National Energy Action in advocating for support and solutions but this situation has been brewing for many years and nothing has been done to properly address it.’
The Council also backed long term solutions to the fuel poverty crisis calling for the mass retrofitting of homes in the North and to bring energy companies back under public control.
Cllr O’Neill stated that, ‘We cannot forget that energy companies were once publicly owned until their sale in the 80s and 90s. For us to create the clean, green, decentralised energy future the national grid needs to be brought into public control. Communities around the world are bringing energy into public ownership for lower bills, more renewable energy, and to combat corporate power. In Germany, public, council owned energy companies supply around half of the market.’
‘This is a critical moment for people in fuel poverty and for the Stormont Executive. We need to make sure that more lives aren’t lost to this preventable problem and we need emergency action as well as long term planning so we’re not in the same situation next winter.’
