Petitions with over 800,000 signatures have been handed into the Prime Minister calling for more action to bring down bills now, end energy debt and to help end the cold damp homes crisis now facing the country1. The hand-in was made by 38 Degrees, Debt Justice, Fuel Poverty Action and Warm This Winter, and the figures accompanying it were published on 1 December 20231.
New figures reveal that 16% of UK adults, or 8.3 million people, live in cold damp homes, and that this includes over 1.7 million of the UK's most vulnerable, according to the latest data from the Warm This Winter campaign1.
Exposure varies sharply by the way a household pays for its energy1:
| Payment type | Share in cold damp homes |
|---|---|
| Smart meter customers with a prepayment meter setting | 32% |
| Traditional prepayment meters | 27% |
| Standard credit | 22% |
| Direct debit | 11% |
Small sample sizes were available for district heating (34% in cold damp homes) and off grid (23%) customers1. By nation and region, London has the highest exposure at 23%, followed by Yorkshire & Humber at 22%, the West Midlands at 18% and the North West at 17%1. The petition totals were given as over 88,000 signatures from 38 Degrees asking for support on energy bills this winter, over 17,000 from Debt Justice demanding the government urgently act by bringing down bills and help families get out of debt, over 660,000 from Fuel Poverty Action demanding #EnergyForAll, and over 41,000 from Warm This Winter demanding the Treasury introduce an Emergency Energy Tariff1.
Fiona Waters, spokesperson for the Warm This Winter campaign, said:
A spokesperson for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition said the government "needs to get a grip on the cold damp homes crisis now facing the country", adding that "ultimately, a failure to protect people from living in cold damp homes will cost lives"1. Dr Isobel Braithwaite, a health and housing researcher at UCL, said the data shows a "shockingly high prevalence of cold and damp homes in the UK, which poses a grave risk to the public's health"1.
Why it matters for households
The figures set out how many homes are living with cold and damp conditions, and how that burden falls unevenly. Households on prepayment meters, whether traditional or a smart meter prepayment setting, report cold damp homes at roughly three times the rate of those paying by direct debit1. That matters for energy independence at the level of the individual home: a household that cannot afford to run its heating has no practical control over its own warmth, whatever the wider market does.
The health consequences are set out in the same material. The NHS warns that people with damp and mould in their homes are more likely to have respiratory problems, respiratory infections, allergies or asthma, and damp and mould can also affect the immune system, while cold homes can cause and worsen respiratory conditions, cardiovascular diseases, poor mental health, dementia and hypothermia1. The End Fuel Poverty Coalition said that without immediate action the cost of the crisis will be felt by increased demand on the already overstretched NHS1.
The petition asks cover three distinct areas: bringing bills down, ending energy debt, and cold damp homes1. Existing support routes for households in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the separate Northern Ireland market, are set out in the site's guides to help with energy bills and debt, including the British Gas Energy Trust for energy debt grants. The petition material also refers to the standing charges and policy costs and levies that make up a bill, and to VAT on energy bills.
What happens next
The material states that the public will instead be faced with increasing energy bills on 1 January 20241. No response from the government to the petition hand-in, and no date for one, has been reported1.
Sources1 cited
- Millions spending winter in cold damp homes, endfuelpoverty.org.uk