Five winter deaths caused in South West every day for a decade due to cold homes
Greenpeace UK are calling for political parties to make a £6 billion pledge
Last updated 14th Mar 2024
It's been revealed that five people have died every day during winters in the South West since 2013, because their homes were too cold.
That's according to research by Greenpeace UK, who are demanding current and future governments pledge in their manifesto's to ensure homes are kept warm during the coldest months of the year.
It's estimated that across the region, over 6,000 lives have been lost as a result of cold, damp housing conditions since the Government, led by then Prime Minister David Cameron (now Lord Cameron) cut support for home insulation in 2013.
A situation no one should be in
Head of Climate at Greenpeace UK, Mel Evans, says the deaths were completely avoidable.
She said: "There are currently over 3,000,000 households living in fuel poverty in the UK, so that's families who everyday like you say, are having to make a choice between heating and eating, which is just not a situation that anyone should be put in."
Mel said it doesn't have to be this way though.
"The UK has the least energy efficient housing in the whole of Western Europe and that's causing health problems and leading to these deaths every day during winter in this country."
Greenpeace are calling on governments to include a £6 billion per year pledge to ensure people's homes are properly insulated.
"There are elderly people and people with young families who are in damp, cold, mouldy homes and it shouldn't be like that, it's not like that in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia right now.
"Why is it here? The next government, whoever's elected this year, has to take action."
They're also calling on a warm homes agency being launched, with the purpose of regulating landlords, compelling them to insulate homes to a certain standard.
Protest on Parliament doorstep
On Wednesday morning (13th March), the campaign group turned Royal Park in London, near the Houses of Parliament, into a cemetery by building hundreds of headstones from the very insulation boards that could have prevented more than 70,000 deaths across the UK in the last decade.
This was done to highlight to MP's the impact cold homes is having.
The protest included an eight metre long funeral wreath reading: 'Cold Homes Cost Lives', which was laid in front of the headstones.
A Government spokesperson said:
"Everyone has the right to a warm, secure and decent home, and we expect landlords to meet our energy efficiency standards before letting properties.
“Almost half of all homes in England now have an EPC rating of C or above, up from just 14% in 2010.
“We have also allocated £20 billion for energy efficiency over this parliament and next, supporting insulation for around 500,000 homes.”