Rachel Reeves MP

Chancellor of the Exchequer

11 Downing Street

London SW1A 2AA

Dear Chancellor of the Exchequer,

We write to you to strongly condemn the decision you, and the Labour Government behind you, has taken to mean-test Winter Fuel Payments in the most recent budget, and to strongly urge you to reverse this decision before it is too late.

Fuel Poverty is a growing issue within the United Kingdom. In the winter of 2022-2023, over 4000 people died as a result of being unable to heat their houses adequately, with some estimates putting that number at just slightly under 5000. The cuts you seek to introduce will put millions of the most vulnerable people in our society at risk, and will undoubtedly cause the number of excess winter deaths due to cold homes to rise further. Under Labour’s own report into the matter, you admit that upwards of 4000 people are likely to die as a direct result of these cuts, deaths which apparently you are content to let happen. This is murder, and we condemn this as strongly as possible.

We refute the Labour Government’s claims that there is a lack of money, money with which these cuts could have been avoided. Within this same budget, Labour announced a £2.9 billion increase to defense spending, whilst in the same breath claiming that they had no money with which to cover the £1.5 billion being ‘saved’ via these cuts. Even beyond this glaring issue of inhumane fiscal priorities, we see that the largest banks within the UK have increased profits by 50-80% in the past year, that the richest 100 families within the UK have increased their wealth by 50% over the past 5 years, and that the profits being seen by the largest corporations within the energy sector dwarf both of these figures. As such, it appears that, as opposed to the government’s claim that there is no money, the truth is in fact that the government would rather subject the most vulnerable in our society to social murder than pursue any real measures of wealth redistribution. We condemn the government for this.

Furthermore, we recognise that the Government has not altered the last government’s pledge of £22 billion in subsidies to fossil fuel companies’ work towards the development of carbon capture, in spite of the wide array of evidence that shows this measure to be ineffective at best and actively harmful to the environment at worst.

The evidence is clear: the money exists, and these cuts were wholly unnecessary.

We recognise that Unite the Union is currently engaged in a legal battle against the Labour Government over this issue. We urge you to reverse these cuts, of your own conscience, instead of waiting until you are forced to do so, a time at which the damage may have already been done. In the event that this letter falls upon deaf ears, we believe that the blood of every unnecessary death from cold homes this year will be on your hands.

Here Signed,