Jane Dodds on Price Cap Rise – I’m Afraid for My Constituents 

Responding to the rise in the UK energy price cap today, Welsh Liberal Democrat Leader and Senedd Member Jane Dodds has spoken of her fear for her constituents.

Jane Dodds represents the largely rural Mid and West Wales region, which contains the local authorities with the highest fuel poverty levels in Wales. As of 2017, the number of households living in fuel poverty was at 23% in Gwynedd, 21% in Ceredigion, 17% in Powys and 14% in Pembrokeshire well above the national rate for Wales which sits at 10%. These figures are likely to have increased as the pandemic and recent price increases have hit.

National Energy Action Cymru predicts that almost a quarter of a million households in Wales are now living in fuel poverty.

The Welsh Liberal Democrats have been urging the Conservative UK Government to expand help to those vulnerable by expanding the warm homes discount amongst other measures.

Commenting Jane Dodds said:

“I am genuinely afraid for a lot of my constituents right now. I know so many of them were already struggling already, and it is utterly heart breaking to hear stories of parents having to choose to feed themselves or their children, or between heating and eating.

“The recent price rises will push some families over the edge, and it is beyond frustrating to see the sheer levels of inaction at Westminster. Rishi Sunak did nothing in his spring statement to address the elephant in room of high energy prices.

“It is beyond belief that the Conservatives are still refusing to introduce a windfall tax on the super profits of oil and gas companies. These companies are not struggling, but instead making their largest profits in decades while the Welsh public suffer.

“A windfall tax could fund the doubling and expanding of the warm homes discount, or even an emergency insulation scheme. But that isn’t even the only thing the Conservatives could do. They could reduce or scrap VAT on energy bills, or add heating oil and LPG to the energy price cap, but they are refusing.

“As if the inaction wasn’t enough, the Conservatives instead hit the Welsh public with a tax rise in terms of national insurance payments. This only goes to demonstrate how out of touch and financially inept they have become.”