MP Daisy Cooper: Coping with the end of energy support

But it’s still bitterly cold and many residents have told me they’re worried about how they’ll cope if the government ends its support for energy bills at the end of March.

That's why this week, I and other Liberal Democrat MPs called for the government not only to extend the current energy price guarantee but to reduce average bills down to the level they were last spring.

St Albans MP Daisy Cooper (Image: Courtesy of Daisy Cooper)

At the moment, government help is due to end in just a few weeks. Its indecision over whether to extend help or not is creating extra and unnecessary stress for those already struggling to afford their rents and mortgages, food shopping and bills.

My party is arguing to extend support for all, but to give extra help to those who are least able to afford any bill increases. We've costed it and the sums work out.

The government has money left over from the existing scheme, because energy prices have started to come down earlier than predicted.

We'd combine that money with a proper windfall tax on the profits of oil and gas companies - profits they only made because energy prices went through the roof.

This confirms the government could easily afford to reduce energy bills next month instead of increasing them. We hope the government will listen.

I've also been campaigning all winter to get fuel payments to people who have missed out on them because they live in park homes and other situations where they don't buy energy directly. I spent months pressing for action and proposed solutions to the government.

Finally, the government has launched a portal, but the payments that the rest of us had weeks ago may not reach these residents for another six weeks.

It’s disgraceful it's taken so long, and that some of those who most needed the winter fuel payments will only get them by the time the daffodils have been and gone.

Whilst the possibility of another energy price hike looms large, my party will keep pressing the government to extend help to desperate families before the end of this month.