Thousands of families are having to face the cold in their homes in London’s deprived East End because they’ve fallen in to fuel poverty because of rising energy prices this winter.
A House of Commons analysis estimates around 3,500 households in Tower Hamlets alone have fallen below the fuel poverty line.
The figures were collated before the recent 10 per cent energy price rises announced by some gas and electricity companies.
Labour’s Health spokesman on Tower Hamlets Council, Bill Turner, said: “Families are again facing a choice between eating or heating this winter.
“It’s an absolute disgrace that they are being left to freeze because the government is refusing to take action against the big energy companies.”
A household is said to be in “fuel poverty” if they have above average costs and would be left with an income below the official poverty line after paying gas and electric bills.
Labour councillors are calling for a freeze in energy prices—rather than a freeze in the homes of families on the poverty line.
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