Rocketing bills: protesting trade unionists take to Wigan streets

The new month has acquired its name because it is not just gas and electricity prices going up but also council tax, water bills, the TV licence, the price of stamps, broadband and mobile phone charges and car tax.

But trade union members in Wigan were focusing on energy bills as part of a nationwide day of action.

Today the latest energy price cap rise comes into effect, which will see a rise of 6.4 per cent from £1,738 to £1,849 for an average dual-fuel household.

The day of action was part of the Unite Energy 4 All campaign, which has been running since 2023 and calls for the eradication of fuel poverty and the national control of energy resources.

Protest events were being held across the UK in around 40 locations, including on Market Place, in Wigan town centre.

Unite, whose members will join other fuel poverty and pensioner groups, claims eight million people are struggling to pay energy bills and on average 7,000 people die each year because they are unable to keep warm in their own homes.

General secretary Sharon Graham said: "It's time to end the chaos in our energy network, which allows profiteers to flourish while workers and communities are left in the cold.

"No-one should ever have to choose between heating and eating. We believe it is time for public ownership and for fuel poverty to be consigned to the dustbin of history.”

Unite claims energy regulator Ofgem has failed to regulate the nation's energy market.

Simon Coop, Unite’s national officer for energy and utilities, said: “Unite is unique as a trade union in organising in the workplace and the community, and our industrial members in the energy sector are right behind Unite Community’s day of action.

“Ofgem have failed to protect consumers. For too long they have sided with the profiteering energy companies over the most vulnerable in our country and we stand in full support of the campaign against fuel poverty and for public ownership of our energy sector.”

Unite is also running a Defend the Winter Fuel Allowance campaign, which demands that the Government reinstates the winter fuel payment and is calling for the introduction of a wealth tax to pay for it.