The NHS estimates that 31,000 deaths annually are linked to cold weather. Age UK claims that this winter 25,000 pensioners will die from the cold. This is equivalent to one death every seven minutes. A further 3.5 million fear they will be unable to afford their heating bill due to soaring energy prices. Age UK’s Caroline Abrahams said: “Fuel poverty is a national scandal which has claimed the lives of too many people”
Chris Jockel, the Green Party Parliamentary candidate, said “The Conservative and LibDem government completely failed 4 years ago to take the Green Party’s advice. We recommended that the money created by quantitative easing be used to fund the Green New Deal, investing in home insulation for every vulnerable pensioner in the country. Instead of preventing an appalling loss of life, creating thousand of real jobs, and tackling climate change.. they funded the city and the bankers .
Every one of these deaths should be on the conscience of both Tory and Lib-Dem ministers as they are entirely preventable”.
Locally, Green District Councillor Simon Pickering and his partners in Stroud’s “constructive cooperation” agreement are investing £12m in insulating council housing. The council has also launched a cheap simple loan scheme for private householders to improve insulation, and will be ensuring that all new council house built will be to the highest standard.