With fuel bills now taking more of a bite out of the household budget than council tax, it’s hardly surprising that more and more people are coming to MPs like me for advice about the cost of heating and lighting their homes.
Not only are bills getting bigger, they’re complicated and it’s hard to know how to make savings. The mis-selling scandal hasn’t helped.
Many people feel impotent against big businesses, and don’t think the government is on their side. They want someone to stand up on their behalf.
So last month I thought I’d try to do something to help my constituents, by arranging a special Utilities Advice Day, a big community event open to all local residents with professional consumer advisers there to help, and utility companies on hand to help people understand their bills.
I wanted more of my constituents to get information about how to reduce their bills, how to switch providers, how to cut heating and lighting costs through insulation and energy efficiency, and so on.
Thanks to the legendary Mitcham and Morden stuffers, we folded leaflets and filled envelopes inviting every local household to come along.
Councillors and volunteers kindly delivered the invitations, and the result of their efforts was outstanding.
More than 500 people came to what felt at times like a busy day at Labour party conference, with people wandering from stall to stall picking up advice and freebies.
I persuaded each of the ‘big six’ energy companies to come, along with Cooperative Energy, the new company on the block providing cheaper energy and simpler tariffs.
Audrey Gallacher, the director of energy at Consumer Focus, whose job it is to ensure consumers get a good deal, agreed to hold a series of question and answer seminars throughout the day designed to advise people how to keep bills to the minimum. She was fantastic, very authoritative, and clearly understood that people are scared by the complexity of the utilities market.
A number of independent switching advisors came too, including uSwitch and energyhelpline. And to ensure people also had advice about benefits, rents and how to manage debts I also persuaded several charities and voluntary groups such as Age UK, Mind and our local Credit Union to offer their help, alongside representatives from Merton council, JobCentre Plus, and all our local housing associations.
Many of them handed out money-saving freebies like electricity usage monitors, and providers of insulation schemes, such as Warm Front, also signed people up. For example, the Climate Energy scheme to visit homes and install new energy saving gadgets had an astonishing 150 referrals as a result of the advice day.
I was even able to get the Travis Perkins group to send advisers from Wickes who could hand out free devices like radiator heat reflectors that help cut the amount you spend heating each room by reflecting more heat into the room instead of the walls.
And, of course, numerous local councillors were available to help throughout the day.
So what can we learn from this event?
We in the Labour party are on people’s side, and people’s sense that they are being ripped off by big companies while government idly watches on is very strong.
There is a value in simply inviting thousands of people to an event like this, because it’s not just the 500 who came who will remember we were on their side, and hopefully even those who didn’t come will have been prompted to do something to cut their bills too.
Any CLP that wants to run similar events will be doing something worthwhile to help their community. They will touch a nerve among their residents, and will get a very warm response.
Every single one of the day’s seminars raised the same issues, which we in opposition will need to find solutions to. Bills are too complex; then, more worryingly, there is a deep fear among many people of direct debit, especially a fear that they are routinely being increased without warning, often even though customers are in credit. This seems to be a commonplace tactic of the utility companies and has to be stopped, because it leads to people going overdrawn or getting bank charges.
The people who most need to switch already face the obstacle of not having enough time to switch, not having access to the internet, and being afraid of intimidation and mis-selling. They are therefore least likely to do so, and fear of bills and of sudden changes to direct debits do not help.
However, on a more positive note, I also learned that there is a lot of help out there that simply isn’t reaching the people it needs to, and we as community activists can help unlock those barriers.
Since the event, I have actually begun working with British Gas, whose schemes for the vulnerable are undersubscribed.
As a result, they are launching a new national scheme called ‘Share the Warmth’, which provides free insulation to people getting the state pension credit, child tax credit (an income below £16,190), or certain income-based benefits.
As loft insulation can save a household around £175 and cavity wall insulation £135, it makes sense to sign up anyway.
But the beauty of the Share the Warmth is that anyone who refers someone to British Gas will also get a £50 reward – and the household getting the free insulation will get a reward of £50 too.
You don’t even need to be a British Gas customer to take part in the scheme or get the money!
If you know anyone who might be eligible, ring 0800 975 1195 to find out more.
And remember, it’s thanks to pressure from campaigners like Labour MPs and councillors who listen to their communities and are on their side that we have such schemes.
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Siobhain McDonagh is MP for Mitcham and Morden
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