The energy crisis will stretch on for years and if anyone thinks overcoming it will be easy, it is a fantasy
A record influx of visitors is expected at libraries and art galleries in Britain next winter but the love of reading and art has nothing to do with it. Authorities are considering a rush to convert the country’s libraries and art galleries into shelters where people can keep warm over the winter, writes The Times.
The idea was the brainchild of well-known British consumer rights campaigner Martin Lewis, who suggested the shelters be called “warm banks” on the model of “food banks”. Bristol, Glasgow, Dundee and Aberdeen have joined the initiative. And the Birmingham authority is even planning to set up “warm banks” in religious centres.
Bristol’s local government councillor, Labour’s John Cotton, told the Daily Mail that “in the good sense, it shouldn’t be that people can’t heat their homes, but it’s the reality we’re facing”.
The British energy regulator Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) is planning another increase in electricity tariffs from 1 October. In April they have already increased by 50%, in October they will rise by another 60%. Moreover, Ofgem announced that electricity tariffs will be revised upwards not twice a year, as before, but every three months.
Energy consultancy experts Auxilione believe the price of electricity will rise by a further 52% to £5405 a year in January 2023, then another 34% to £7263 in April.
It looks like Britons will have to keep warm in public places, rather than their homes, for more than one winter. The chief executive of energy giant, oil and gas company Shell, Ben van Beurden told reporters that “the energy crisis will stretch on for years” and if anyone thinks overcoming it will be easy and simple, “that is fantasy”.
Many Britons had hoped to survive the winter in their favourite pubs, but their hopes have dashed as the heads of Britain’s six biggest pub chains have warned that “sky-high energy prices” will force two-thirds of Britain’s pubs into bankruptcy and they will not survive the winter. One owner of a pub said her energy bill had soared from £48,000 to £112,000 a year.
The heads of six of Britain’s biggest breweries say rising energy costs pose a greater danger than a “pandemic”.
Libraries, art galleries and other public institutions in the UK will be overcrowded in winter; a poll conducted by the Savanta ComRes consultancy showed that 69% of Britons will turn the heating on less often, and 23% will give up heating in their homes in winter altogether. 10% will take out microloans to pay their utility bills.
Freezing Britons will face higher rates of illness, but here too they will face problems because the National Health Service is in disastrous shape, says The Independent, quoting a long-serving emergency worker who advises Britons to go on the crime (“borrow, borrow, steal”) to find money for private clinics, but by no means use the public hospitals.
The Liberal Democrats, who commissioned the Savanta ComRes survey, warned that British families are being forced to make “heartbreaking decisions” as the country is “on the brink of the worst cost of living crisis in a century”.
The rate of increase in British household debt is rising at the fastest rate since 2005. And what will happen in winter? Loan rates are skyrocketing. The era of low rates and low inflation is a thing of the past. Goldman Sachs expects inflation to soar to 22% this winter, something the UK hasn’t seen since the Second World War.
Alice Hain, personal finance analyst at investment platform Bestinvest, told the Daily Mail that “the rise in consumer loan borrowing reflects how strained people’s finances are becoming in the cost of living crisis”.
The National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) has also left little hope for an improving economic situation. According to a recent NIESR forecast, the UK economy is sliding into recession and by 2024 more than 5 million households will lose their savings and seven million will have to live from paycheck to paycheck. NIESR analysts expect UK GDP to fall in the second half of 2022 and the first quarter of 2023. Risks of an even deeper recession are mounting.
Against such a backdrop, Boris Johnson’s demagogic rhetoric urging the public to put up with staggering energy bills in the name of “defeating Putin” only embitters Britons.
The threat of facing “fuel poverty” has sparked the “non-payers” movement Don’t Pay UK. The movement urges UK citizens not to pay their energy bills. According to Don’t Pay UK activists, 6.3 million households will be unable to pay their energy bills this winter and 10 million households will experience ‘fuel stress’.
In addition to the non-pay movement, strike activity is also increasing.
Continuous strikes by railway workers will continue in September. The next rounds of a nationwide railway workers’ strike demanding a pay rise and job security will take place on September 15 and 26. The Transport Salaried Workers’ Association (TSSA) said it was pushing for a review of the railway workers’ pay agreement. The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers (ASLEF) said it wanted a “proper pay offer” to help its members keep up with rising living costs.
Postal workers (Royal Mail) will also go on strike in September. More than 115,000 members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU), who collect, sort and deliver parcels and letters, will take part in the strike in the coming weeks.
Members of the Criminal Bar Association who are unhappy with their pay will go on strike from September 5. It is expected to bring the criminal justice system to a standstill.
School and nursery staff in 13 UK cities will go on strike.
On 27 August, rubbish collectors in the London borough of Newham went on strike after authorities refused to increase their wages.
The protest and strike movement is gaining momentum. Across the country, a “simmering feeling of revolution” is building, Metro notes.
Vladimir Prokhvatilov, FSK
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