I WAS recently informed by a charity worker, who delivers food to the needy
in Scotland, that more and more people who come to them are having to
request items that do not require cooking or hot water to prepare because
they do not have the money to afford electricity to heat the hotplate or
boil the kettle.
The staples of every food parcel, such as tea, coffee, instant potato, some
tinned meats, porridge, rice, and pasta, require cooking or hot water. They
say they cannot run refrigerators to preserve milk and uneaten food. So now
the most vulnerable in our society who once had to choose between heating
and eating are finding themselves at the lowest possible moment unable to
do either, even when given food.
Many are on the most expensive form of energy with coin-fed meters. No
coins equals no energy, ergo no heating and no hot food.
Fuel poverty is a disgrace in any civilised society and finding ways to
reduce energy bills is of paramount importance. Just removing the “green”
levies and surcharges and putting them on income tax would be a simple
start and mean those who can afford to pay more do so.
It is particularly galling that the wind developer and complicit landowners
are raking in the spoils of the subsidy system when you know it is the
poor, the sick, the elderly and the single parent who have contributed to
their wealth via domestic energy bills, whether they can afford to or not.
Lyndsey Ward,
Darach Brae,
Beauly.
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