School girls call on government to make homes super energy efficient

Following the release of fuel poverty figures last week, which indicate one in five homes (20%) in Rochdale are living in fuel poverty, local sisters are working with leading children’s charity the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) to call on government to make homes in the UK super energy efficient.

Mariyam and Kiran Iqbal are members of a team of young people from NCB who speak out on fuel poverty and its impact on children and young people. They are urging everyone to back the Energy Bill Revolution campaign.

The Energy Bill Revolution campaign, endorsed by NCB, is an alliance of over 80 leading charities, unions and businesses calling on the Government to use carbon tax revenue to make UK households super-energy efficient.

14 Year old Kiran said: "It is both disgraceful and disgusting that children have to live in such appalling conditions when the UK is in the top ten richest countries of the world. It is the government’s firm duty and responsibility to care for all the people of Britain and help them in having a brighter future however this is not possible for many children and so the government should sort out its priorities and make helping end fuel poverty one of them. It needs to stop."

Her 12 year old sister, Mariyam added: "It is not fair that children should have to suffer this way when it is preventable. Also, as well as suffering from fuel poverty, children and young people suffer from diseases and illnesses which also affect their education. This must be finished."

The figure is even more grim for the North West as a whole, with 237, 993 homes (21.2%) suffering from fuel poverty.

Hilary Emery, NCB’s Chief Executive said: "We know that living in a cold, damp home damages children’s health as they are twice as likely to suffer from asthma and bronchitis as children living in warm homes. They are also more likely to have mental health problems and their education may suffer due to time off school through illness.

"Worryingly, research by the Association for the Conservation of Energy shows that spending on alleviating fuel poverty is going down. If we are to solve the problem of fuel poverty once and for all we must increase our efforts to improve the energy efficiency of homes and protect our children’s health’.

Mariyam and Kiran are calling on MPs Simon Danczuk and Jim Dobbin, local councillors, and residents to back the Energy Bill Revolution campaign by signing the petition at:

www.energybillrevolution.org