We can do one better, Burnham: the new plan to lower your energy bills
Another heatwave, another round of amber warnings and struggling gardens. Residents across Runnymede and Weybridge have lived through three heatwaves already this summer, and the Met Office is clear that hotter, more frequent heatwaves are now the pattern, not the exception.
By mid July, the UK had already recorded more days above 30°C this year than in the whole of 1976, and scientists say a 40°C summer could become close to routine within a decade. For local families the effect is not abstract: it means higher energy bills to keep homes cool and food fresh, and real pressure on an NHS already stretched by heat related illness.
Andy Burnham is now Prime Minister. His opening gambit on energy policy is more North Sea drilling, framed as a fix for the cost of living, alongside removing VAT on electricity bills.
Local Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Chelsea Whyte says that is the wrong way to bring down energy costs while protecting the environment. "Drilling for more oil and gas does not bring your bill down tomorrow," she said. "It commits us to years of the same insecurity and uncertainty while guaranteeing more climate disruption for years to come, at exactly the moment we need to be changing our approach."
The Liberal Democrats' alternative is the Essential Energy Guarantee: every household would get around half of their typical energy use at a discounted, fixed rate, whatever happens to wholesale prices elsewhere. It is funded by clawing back the windfall profits energy network companies are set to make under a loophole in their Ofgem contracts, worth an estimated five billion pounds by 2028. The plan would save the average family £100 a year, rising to £140 for the least well off households, with extra help for families with children and people with disabilities.
Alongside this, the party wants far greater investment in renewable energy and a serious, funded programme of tree planting and habitat restoration, recognising that cutting bills and protecting nature are the same fight, not competing ones.
Chelsea is calling on residents across Runnymede and Weybridge to back the plan. "We can fix the cost of living and the climate crisis at the same time. We just need the political will to do it properly, not the easy option of more drilling."
Sign the petition backing the Essential Energy Guarantee at libdems.org.uk/cutbills.