Millions of households across the UK will be pushed into fuel poverty as energy bills for the average family rise by over £220 a year following the Labour governments increase in the price cap for gas and electricity.
The cap on gas and electricity rates will mean the number of households forced to spend over 10% of their income on energy bills will increase from 11.3 million to 13.5 million according to research by fuel poverty campaigners.
Using figures based on research by the University of York, the charity End Fuel Poverty warned that the biggest rise in energy charges in four years will leave around 5.5 million homes facing energy bills that amount to 20% of their income.
This is a sharp increase from 4.3 million in April this year.
Simon Francis from End Fuel Poverty Coalition said: ‘These figures show the reality behind the headline price cap figure: a growing number of households are spending an unsustainable share of their income just to heat their homes in winter and keep them cool in summer.’
Francis added that the situation will only get worse for the families of workers, saying: ‘With energy costs rising over the summer, any chance households had to reduce energy debts or build up reserves before the winter heating season will be wiped out.’
Millions of working class families are being plunged into fuel poverty and are forced to choose between heating their homes in winter or cooling them during the blazing hot summers that are becoming more common, and feeding themselves and their children.
While millions struggle to pay their soaring energy bills, the giant energy companies are generating massive profits.
In the first three months of 2026, energy companies made profits of over £26.2 billion worldwide, with around £3 billion coming from Britain.
In these three months, these companies made £102 in profit for every household in the UK.
While the working class is made to pay for the soaring cost of oil and gas, driven by the imperialist war on Iran, these companies have made a fortune.
Analysis carried out by the Guardian newspaper in April found that the world’s top 100 oil and gas companies made over $30 million every hour in unearned profits during the first month of the unprovoked US-Israeli war.
Meanwhile the Swiss Bank, UBS, this week released a report showing that the average wealth of Britain has fallen by over a fifth in the last five years.
This is the biggest decline in wealth out of the 37 countries surveyed by UBS.
Wealth, as measured by the value of assets such as property and stocks, has fallen sharply as the UK was hit by a worse inflation rate than other developed nations due to the massive increase in energy costs.
In fact British workers have suffered a bigger drop than those in countries such as Turkey, Bulgaria, Mexico and Kazakhstan over the last five years.
In response to this acute crisis, the Unite trade union announced it was ‘stepping up’ its Unite 4 All campaign to end fuel poverty by calling a day of action in Stratford, east London, yesterday.
Apart from this limited protest, a repeat of the same protests Unite called last year begging Labour to cut energy prices, the TUC has sat back while millions of workers are being plunged into poverty.
The time for just isolated protests is well and truly over.
The working class will never accept being driven into the gutter of poverty by a Labour government whose only priority is to ‘rescue’ bankrupt British capitalism and the profits of the bosses and bankers by dumping the economic crisis onto the backs of workers and their families.
Workers must demand that the TUC call a general strike to bring down the Labour government and bring in a workers government that will nationalise the major energy companies along with the banks and put them under workers management and control as part of building a planned socialist economy that will provide for the needs of the people.
Millions of households across the UK will be pushed into fuel poverty as energy bills for the average family rise by over £220 a year following the Labour governments increase in the price cap for gas and electricity.
The cap on gas and electricity rates will mean the number of households forced to spend over 10% of their income on energy bills will increase from 11.3 million to 13.5 million according to research by fuel poverty campaigners.
Using figures based on research by the University of York, the charity End Fuel Poverty warned that the biggest rise in energy charges in four years will leave around 5.5 million homes facing energy bills that amount to 20% of their income.
This is a sharp increase from 4.3 million in April this year.
Simon Francis from End Fuel Poverty Coalition said: ‘These figures show the reality behind the headline price cap figure: a growing number of households are spending an unsustainable share of their income just to heat their homes in winter and keep them cool in summer.’
Francis added that the situation will only get worse for the families of workers, saying: ‘With energy costs rising over the summer, any chance households had to reduce energy debts or build up reserves before the winter heating season will be wiped out.’
Millions of working class families are being plunged into fuel poverty and are forced to choose between heating their homes in winter or cooling them during the blazing hot summers that are becoming more common, and feeding themselves and their children.
While millions struggle to pay their soaring energy bills, the giant energy companies are generating massive profits.
In the first three months of 2026, energy companies made profits of over £26.2 billion worldwide, with around £3 billion coming from Britain.
In these three months, these companies made £102 in profit for every household in the UK.
While the working class is made to pay for the soaring cost of oil and gas, driven by the imperialist war on Iran, these companies have made a fortune.
Analysis carried out by the Guardian newspaper in April found that the world’s top 100 oil and gas companies made over $30 million every hour in unearned profits during the first month of the unprovoked US-Israeli war.
Meanwhile the Swiss Bank, UBS, this week released a report showing that the average wealth of Britain has fallen by over a fifth in the last five years.
This is the biggest decline in wealth out of the 37 countries surveyed by UBS.
Wealth, as measured by the value of assets such as property and stocks, has fallen sharply as the UK was hit by a worse inflation rate than other developed nations due to the massive increase in energy costs.
In fact British workers have suffered a bigger drop than those in countries such as Turkey, Bulgaria, Mexico and Kazakhstan over the last five years.
In response to this acute crisis, the Unite trade union announced it was ‘stepping up’ its Unite 4 All campaign to end fuel poverty by calling a day of action in Stratford, east London, yesterday.
Apart from this limited protest, a repeat of the same protests Unite called last year begging Labour to cut energy prices, the TUC has sat back while millions of workers are being plunged into poverty.
The time for just isolated protests is well and truly over.
The working class will never accept being driven into the gutter of poverty by a Labour government whose only priority is to ‘rescue’ bankrupt British capitalism and the profits of the bosses and bankers by dumping the economic crisis onto the backs of workers and their families.
Workers must demand that the TUC call a general strike to bring down the Labour government and bring in a workers government that will nationalise the major energy companies along with the banks and put them under workers management and control as part of building a planned socialist economy that will provide for the needs of the people.