“I never in my career expected to create warm banks,” said Ian Brookfield, Labor leader of Wolverhampton council. “I’m ashamed that in this country we have to do this.”
Just 15 miles from where the Conservative Party has gathered for its annual conference, people in Wolverhampton face the highest levels of fuel poverty of any local authority in England. Compared to a national average rate of 13%, Wolverhampton has a fuel poverty level of 22.4%.
To prepare for winter, the council has created 38 ‘warm spaces’ in council buildings and community centers across the city. From October 24, they will be open to visitors so people can warm up, charge their phone and have a hot drink.
“I’m not going to be happy about us opening them up,” Brookfield said. “But we’re doing it because there’s a very real chance we’re going to lose people, not to accidents or disease, but because they can’t afford to keep warm or eat.”
Brookfield said seeing images from the Tory conference so close to where people are struggling to heat their homes was particularly infuriating.
“The first comments we heard from the conference were ‘Birmingham is a dump,'” he said. “Look at this and what they are trying to do to take advantage and of course everyone is welcome to come to the West Midlands, but it really sticks in the throat when you see the lack of compassion.”
While Liz Truss was busy in Birmingham trying to rally the party behind her economic policies, there was fear and anger on the streets of Wolverhampton over the rising cost of living.
Bernard Gammage: “We are told to work longer, eat less, drink less or dress extra. Why should they when they’ve created this situation?” Photo: Andrew Fox/The Guardian
Beverley Buckley, 53, said she is already wrapping herself in blankets to keep heating costs low as her energy bills will double from October.
“I recently had to leave work due to ill health, so my worry is how the hell am I going to pay my bills? It’s a big concern,” she said. “I stopped running the central heating and stopped using mine [clothes] dryer because this uses a lot of electricity.
“I was told if I used less energy then hopefully I wouldn’t be paying double, but I didn’t use much in the first place, how much less can I use?”
Like many people in the West Midlands city, she said she had “no faith” the Conservative government would do anything to help ease the burden.
Bernard Gammage, a 70-year-old retired jockey, said: “They had 13 years to sort the country out. We have had correspondence from E.ON that our bills are going up again in October. But I don’t intend to pay extra. People will refuse.”
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He said: “We still have the political power to say ‘we didn’t pick her, you did.’ This is not an elected government. We are told to work longer, eat less, drink less or dress extra. Why should they when they created this situation?’
Jenna Raybone, 36, a medical secretary at a GP practice and mother of five, said her family had agreed to no screen time on Tuesdays and Thursdays to keep electricity bills down.
Jenna Raybone: “It really feels like the rich are getting richer and everyone else is being left behind.” Photo: Andrew Fox/The Guardian
“We’ve also said we’re going to stick to the gas hob and not the electric oven and grill,” she said. “We keep the heating on the eco setting all the time and we said that only if everyone is in jumpers and layers and they’re still cold then we’ll turn it up. It’s a worry, no extra money, but everything is looking up.
She is seeing the impact of the cost of living crisis and at work, where more patients are asking for prescription paracetamol because they can’t buy it. “It really feels like the rich are getting richer and everyone else is being left behind,” she said.
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