Politics: Fuel bill rises set to hit Scottish pensioners hard this winter
It’s been a busy month since my last column and with parliament currently on a brief recess to allow the UK parties to hold their annual conferences, it’s afforded a good opportunity to get out and about in the constituency, writes Aberdeenshire North and Moray East MP Seamus Logan.
Two issues have been dominating since then – or three if you want to include the donations of clothing, spectacles and corporate boxes at the football which seems to have come as a huge surprise to the Prime Minister that people might just find this whole affair rather curious at best.
The first issue is GB Energy and the announcement that it will be headquartered in the north-east of Scotland. I give credit where credit is due to the Labour Government on this. I was one of many voices who had called for them to base the new body in Aberdeen.
It is the logical place for it to be.
However, the government must accept that the messaging around GB Energy was muddled at the very least during the election. It was almost as if it was rushed through as a manifesto headline, rather than resulting from the strategic development of careful, thought-out planning.
There is still a lack of clarity around how, exactly, GB Energy will reduce people’s energy bills, as has been claimed, or generate electricity, which has been touted, denied, and now seems to be back in the frame.
Add to this the uncertainty being created in the energy sector by the new government’s plans for a windfall tax after figures published by an industry body showed that its plans will cost the economy £13 billion and put up to 35,000 jobs at risk.
The analysis from Offshore Energies UK, a trade body for the UK’s offshore energy industry, shows that the planned increase and extension of the energy and profits levy will risk losing £12 billion in tax receipts and an overall loss in economic value of around £13 billion.
The alarming figures came out days after the SNP reaffirmed its commitment to a just transition for Scotland at its national conference saying that our secure renewable energy future is being jeopardised by “reckless and irresponsible decisions by Labour at Westminster”.
Secondly, the decision by the Chancellor of the Exchequer to cut the Winter Fuel Payment has generated by far the biggest amount of correspondence in my inbox so far.
I had the opportunity to vote against this cut on September 10, but the new Labour government’s majority carried the day.
Withdrawing the Winter Fuel Payment is a financial hammer blow to vulnerable pensioners and risks putting elderly people into a desperate situation this winter. Pensioners in Scotland should not be forced to bear the brunt of yet more Westminster cuts under this new UK government.
Respected charity Age UK’s response to the UK government's decision to cut the Winter Fuel Payment shows that energy bills are expected to rise by 10 per cent this winter. As a result, Age UK estimates that as many as two million pensioners across the UK will struggle financially this winter.
While I will continue with others to push for a reversal of this decision, I fear that we will be hearing much more from Age UK and other charities this winter as the effects of this policy begin to be felt, particularly in areas such as the north of Scotland.
