Pressure on household energy bills discussed on IEMA podcast

The latest episode from IEMA’s podcast - Greening the News - features senior fuel poverty and energy efficiency experts, discussing the current energy crisis and pressures on household bills with IEMA’s chief executive officer Sarah Mukherjee MBE. The episode, which was published today (Wednesday 23 February), features reflections on how we got into this crisis and what should be done to address the issue.

Many households in the UK are facing difficult decisions about whether to turn the heating on during the winter months, with some having to choose between heating and eating. In this podcast, Adam Scorer, Chief Executive of National Energy Action raises the prospect of inflation and the energy crisis increasing the chances of households having to cut down on both heating and eating as price pressures reach crisis point. Meanwhile, Richard Lupo, Managing Director of SHIFT Environment promoted insulating all homes in the UK to reduce energy bills.

The energy price crisis led the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, to provide short-term relief on households energy bills. But the energy crisis doesn’t appear to be a short term issue, with ongoing and unusual fluctuations in the wholesale price of fossil fuels and geopolitical pressures on fuel supplies becoming more intense.

National Energy Action is a charity working to end fuel poverty in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. They provide advice and support to people who are struggling to hear their homes, they campaign and advocate on behalf of those living in fuel poor households, they undertake research and they develop accredited training and qualifications to improve standards of energy advice.

SHIFT Environment, which are Small and Medium Enterprise corporate partners of IEMA, provide organisations with comprehensive, holistic and independent assessments of their buildings’ environmental performance, benchmarked against similar organisations and science-based targets.

You can listen to the podcast here.

Tom Pashby

Digital Journalist, IEMA

Tom Pashby is a Digital Journalist at IEMA, working alongside the Head of Media Abigail Simmons, and the Senior Media Officer Tim Farmer.

Alongside their work for IEMA, Tom is currently studying part-time for an NCTJ Diploma in Journalism with PA Training, and freelances as a writer and editor. They have written about the climate emergency, LGBTQIA+ rights and the UK constitution for publications including the Times, the i newspaper, Metro, PinkNews and the Ecologist.