YESTERDAY was dubbed ‘Awful April’ in the press, as millions of households throughout the UK were hit by massive price increases across the board – from energy and water to car tax and TV licence bills.
Gas and electricity charges, one of the biggest costs for households, were increased by 6.4% yesterday taking the annual average bill for a typical household to £1,849.
This is the third increase in a row and means that households will be paying around £600 a year more for gas and electricity than before the fuel crisis that erupted three years ago following the sanctions on Russian energy supplies imposed by the Nato powers to weaken the Russian economy.
While workers and their families have faced continual increases in energy prices, the giant energy companies have been raking in a fortune of over £500 billion in profits in the past five years.
Researchers at the End Fuel Poverty Coalition examined the accounts of energy companies, including producers and household suppliers, and found that 20 companies have made £514 billion between them since 2020 including £115 billion last year.
This figure includes their worldwide profits not just from the UK.
In the UK, Centrica, which owns British Gas, made £1.6 billion profit last year and since 2020 has made £9 billion in profit since 2020.
Simons Francis, coordinator of End Fuel Poverty Coalition said: ‘As energy prices remain at levels way above the 2020 benchmark, the energy industry is taking us for April fools.’
Following hard on the heels of Labour Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ Spring statement last week that cut benefits to the sick and disabled, this latest massive increase in the cost of living will impoverish millions of working class families.
A recent poll conducted by National Energy Action found that 49% of all those polled reported that they are likely to ration their energy use, while those with specific health conditions are more likely to do so.
In the case of water bills, households are facing the largest increase since the privatisation of the water industry 36 years ago.
Household bills in England and Wales will increase by an average of £123, around £10 a month, taking them from £480 to £603 in the next year alone.
A recent study by experts at the University of Greenwich found that over a third of customer bills for water in England and Wales are not used for water or sewerage services but instead are used to pay the interest on the massive debts these companies have accrued and to pay dividends to their shareholders.
The response of the TUC leaders to this devastating increase in the cost of living that will drive millions more working class households into extreme poverty has been to keep silent.
Last week, TUC general secretary Paul Nowak commented on the latest figures on UK poverty levels, that showed that 12.3 million people in the UK are in absolute poverty (up from 11.9 million in 2022-23) urging Labour ministers to ‘rethink’ plans to cut disability benefits.
Starmer’s government will never ‘rethink’ its plans to rescue a bankrupt British capitalism and the profits of the bosses by dumping the economic crisis of capitalism onto the backs of workers and their families.
Community members of the large Unite union called for protests in 40 locations across the UK yesterday to protest over the huge increase in energy prices but apart from this limited protest call the powerful trade union movement has sat back while millions of workers face being plunged even further into poverty.
The time for just isolated protests is well and truly over.
Workers must force their unions to immediately organise mass strike action to defend workers and their families from paying the price of keeping the shareholders and speculators in profit.
The working class must demand the TUC call a general strike to bring down the Labour government and bring in a workers government that will nationalise the major energy and water companies along with the banks and put them under workers’ management, bringing in a socialist planned economy that will provide for the needs of the people.
