Pressure mounts on the Government, as protesters march in London this week against continued austerity.

Trust in Labour will be further threatened if the Chancellor scales back funding for home insulation and lowering energy bills, according to new polling released, in echoes of the row over Winter Fuel Payments.

Recent media reports suggest that the Chancellor is considering reducing the funding available to insulate homes.

The research by Opinium reveals that nearly half of Labour voters say that any backtracking from Labour’s manifesto commitment to invest in insulating the country’s poor housing stock would further reduce trust in Sir Keir Starmer’s Government. Almost half of Labour voters said the warm homes election promise was a factor in their decision to vote for the Labour Party. 

Labour promised to invest £13.2bn in a Warm Homes Plan to help improve the country’s leaky housing, which is making people ill and driving up NHS demand. A recent Medact survey found that three-quarters of front-line clinicians regularly see patients made ill by poor housing conditions, and almost half have discharged patients into homes they knew would make them sick again.   

In the run-up to the General Election, over half of prospective Labour voters said they supported a funded nationwide insulation programme to slash deaths caused by cold, damp houses. Meanwhile other researchers found that 59% of voters opposed stripping all pensioners of Winter Fuel Payments.

Ed Matthew, UK Director for the climate change thinktank E3G said:“Cutting a programme that will make immediate and direct improvements to people’s lives would backfire. The public want this Government to honour its manifesto pledge. If they fail to do so it would demonstrate that Labour have not learned from the Winter Fuel debacle at all.”

Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “The Chancellor must not be able to engineer another ‘Winter Fuel Payment’ disaster by refusing to help tackle fuel poverty and MPs should make that clear.”

The polling came as health workers delivered an open letter to Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting MP, endorsed by several royal colleges. The letter urges the Government to honour its election promise to reduce energy bills and allocate at least £13.2 billion to a nationwide insulation programme in the upcoming Comprehensive Spending Review. 

Maria Carvalho, spokesperson for Medact, commented: “It’s simple. All we want is what was promised in the election campaign. That means a fully funded Warm Homes Plan, investment in green jobs, skills, and training, stronger protections for renters after upgrades are completed and delivery of high-quality home retrofits.”

In recent days groups of businesses and over 50 senior figures from charities have written to the Treasury to express concerns that the Warm Homes Policy policy is facing severe cuts.

Energy companies pay compensation

Meanwhile, eight energy providers are to pay £74 million in compensation, financial support and debt-write-offs for force fitting prepayment meters (PPMs) in the homes of thousands of older and vulnerable people.

Following an investigation, Ofgem, the energy industry regulator, announced the companies “did not follow the rules when installing PPMs to collect debt without household permission.” 

However, enforcement investigations are continuing for British Gas, Utilita and Ovo, representing tens of thousands more customers.

Jan Shortt, General Secretary, National Pensioners Convention said: “NPC has campaigned against the scandalous force-fitting of PPMs since we first heard about it two years ago.Many households were forced onto PPMs at a time when energy was at a premium and they were clearly struggling with bills.”

Demonstrate June 7^th

Campaigners continue to push for a complete overturn of the Government’s cuts to winter fuel payments. Keir Starmer’s announcement last month falls a long way short of a complete reinstatement of the Winter Fuel Benefit.

The issue will be one focus of the mass protest called by the People’s Assembly in London this Saturday against Government spending cuts that target the poorest and most vulnerable.

The demonstration will start at 12.00pm at Portland Place, London W1B and march to Whitehall for a public rally with speeches.

A People’s Assembly spokesperson said: “Keir Starmer’s Government is making spending cuts that target the poorest, most vulnerable in society. Scrapping Winter Fuel Payments, keeping the Tory two-child benefit cap, abandoning WASPI women, cutting £5bn of welfare by limiting PIP and Universal Credit eligibility, and slashing UK foreign aid from 0.5% to 0.3% of GDP, while increasing defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, are presented as ‘tough choices’. But real tough choices would be for a Labour Government to tax the rich and their hidden wealth, to fund public services, fair pay, investment in communities and the NHS.”