Struggling to afford your heating? Here’s what support is available – and some ways to keep warm on the cheap
Temperatures are well below freezing, but the cost of putting on the heating is at record levels – so what support is out there, and how likely are you to be disconnected if you can’t pay?
Snow can be fun, but amid a cost of living crisis it can also cause problems for some.
The government recommends you heat your home to a temperature that is comfortable to you, and to keep the rooms you use the most (such as the living room and bedroom) above 18C if you can.
This is particularly important if you have a pre-existing medical condition.
What help is available?
Firstly, if you are sitting at home in the freezing cold, there is help available.
The Department for Work and Pensions has launched a top-up scheme, called the Cold Weather Payment, to help some people through the winter.
There are grants, benefits and sources of advice available to make your home more energy efficient, improve your heating or help with bills.
There are also support measures in place to help with the cost of living.
More information can be found on Age UK’s website.
Local councils often have support available, including discretionary grants, so contact them to see what is available.
Let your energy supplier know
It is important to contact your supplier as soon as you have any change in circumstances, including if you are unable to pay your bill. They may be able to help you.
Some energy companies have trust funds and hardship funds which can make payments to help clear energy debts.
Your supplier may also be able to help you with the cost of a more efficient boiler, or other energy efficiency measures.
If you have a medical or mental health condition which makes it harder for you to manage, ask your supplier to put you on their Priority Services Register so that you get extra help.
Reasons you can be added to the Priority Services Register are varied – from being a pensioner to being recently bereaved or pregnant.
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Check you are receiving the energy discount
Every household in England, Scotland and Wales that is connected to the electricity grid will be eligible for the grant, which will provide £400 to help towards energy bills.
Check this amount is being credited to your account – it works out as around £67 a month, every month, from October until March.
If you are on a prepayment meter, you will either be sent redeemable vouchers by text, email or post, or you will be given an automatic credit when you top up as usual.
Double-check with your energy supplier to make sure you are receiving the money.
A jogger runs through the snow in Greenwich Park, southeast London
Disconnections are rare
If you miss a payment, the supplier will first send you a reminder. If they still don’t hear from you, they may try to visit you at home to work out the best way to pay – but some could add the cost of this visit to your account.
If you don’t agree to a repayment plan, they may try to force you to have a prepayment meter installed. This means you would have to pay for your energy upfront, as well as a weekly amount to cover any debt.
If you haven’t paid your bill after 28 days, you may be threatened with disconnection of your supply.
While this is rare – with one campaign group claiming as few as eight people were disconnected in 2018 – it could still happen.
Families sledging through the snow in Greenwich Park
How to keep yourself warm on the cheap
Amid a cost of living crisis, it is not always practical or realistic to stick the heating on if you are cold.
If you have a spare room that is rarely used, make sure the radiator is turned off (or turned right down) to make sure you aren’t heating an empty room. Don’t forget to bleed your radiators too, to make sure they are working at their best.
Also check what time your heating is coming on. There is not much point it being on during the day if you are out at work.
If bills are still a struggle, heat one room of your house and try to spend most of your time there.
Electric blankets and throws can also work out as a cheaper alternative.
One big jumper can seem cosy, but wearing lots of layers works better to trap heat. Base layers, including thermal vests, are fairly inexpensive. Keep an eye out for clothing made from wool, cotton or a fleecy fabric.
A Southeastern train makes its way through Ashford in Kent
Draught-proof your house
If you are drying clothes inside, it may be worth leaving that one room ventilated (with the door shut) to prevent damp and mould. Shutting doors throughout your home is a good way to keep the heat in.
Try to block any areas in your home that are particularly draughty, including around window frames, keyholes and under doors.
Keep your curtains open during the day to let light and warmth in, but draw them just before it gets dark to avoid losing any extra heat gained during the day.
Warm food and drinks
The British Heart Foundation recommends trying to stick to a balanced diet of fruit and veg to keep your immune system working during winter.
Regular hot drinks and food including porridge, soups and stews can also help keep you warm.
Frozen or tinned fruit and vegetables (if there’s no added salt or sugar) are just as healthy as fresh and can be more affordable if they’re out of season in winter.
If you are trying to keep cooking costs down, an air fryer or slow cooker might be a cheaper way to reduce costs, although you have the initial outlay.
Opening the oven door after you’ve finished cooking will also funnel any leftover hot air into your home.
The last blast furnaces left operating in Britain could see their fate sealed within days, after their Chinese owners took the decision to cut off the crucial supply of ingredients keeping them running.
Jingye, the owner of British Steel in Scunthorpe, has, according to union representatives, cancelled future orders for the iron ore, coal and other raw materials needed to keep the furnaces running.
The upshot is that they may have to close next month – even sooner than the earliest date suggested for its closure.
Read more: Thousands of jobs at risk as British Steel consults unions over closure
The fate of the blast furnaces – the last two domestic sources of virgin steel, made from iron ore rather than recycled – is likely to be determined in a matter of days, with the Department for Business and Trade now actively pondering nationalisation.
The upshot is that even as Britain contends with a trade war across the Atlantic, it is now working against the clock to secure the future of steelmaking at Scunthorpe.
The talks between the government and Jingye broke down last week after the Chinese company, which bought British Steel out of receivership in 2020, rejected a £500m offer of public money to replace the existing furnaces with electric arc furnaces.
The sum is the same one it offered to Tata Steel, which has shut down the other remaining UK blast furnaces in Port Talbot and is planning to build electric furnaces – which have far lower carbon emissions.
These steel workers could soon be out of work
However, the owners argue that the amount is too little to justify extra investment at Scunthorpe, and said last week they were now consulting on the date of shutting both the blast furnaces and the attached steelworks.
Since British Steel is the main provider of steel rails to Network Rail – as well as other construction steels available from only a few sites in the world – the closure would leave the UK more reliant on imports for critical infrastructure sites.
However, since the site belongs to its Chinese owners, a decision to nationalise the site would involve radical steps government officials are wary of taking.
They also fear leaving taxpayers exposed to a potentially loss-making business for the long run.
The dilemma has been heightened by the sharp turn in geopolitical sentiment following Donald Trump’s return to the White House.
The incipient trade war and threatened cut in American support to Europe have sparked fresh calls for countries to act urgently to secure their own supplies of critical materials, especially those used for defence and infrastructure.
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Gareth Stace, head of UK Steel, the industry lobby group, said: “Talks seem to have broken down between government and British Steel.
“My advice to government is: please, Jonathan Reynolds, Business Secretary, get back round that negotiating table, thrash out a deal, and if a deal can’t be found in the next few days, then I fear for the very future of the sector, but also here for Scunthorpe steelworks.”
British Steel declined to comment.
UK
Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace branded ‘crude attempt to enrich himself’ as Chinese spy documents set to be released
Prince Andrew’s efforts to make money from his Pitch@Palace project have been branded as a “crude attempt to enrich himself” at the expense of “unsuspecting tech founders”, as new documents may shed more light on what he and his team have been attempting to sell.
Today is the deadline for documents to be released relating to Prince Andrew‘s former senior adviser Dominic Hampshire and his interactions with the alleged Chinese spy Yang Tengbo.
In February, an immigration tribunal heard how the intelligence services had contacted Mr Hampshire about Mr Yang back in 2022. Mr Yang helped set up Pitch@Palace China, a branch of the duke’s scheme to help young entrepreneurs.
The alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo, has links with Prince Andrew
Yang Tengbo. Pic: Pitch@Palace
Judges banned Mr Yang from the UK, saying his association with a senior royal had made Prince Andrew “vulnerable” and posed a threat to national security. Mr Yang challenged that decision at the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC).
Since that hearing, media organisations have applied for certain documents relating to the case and Mr Hampshire’s support for Mr Yang to be made public. SIAC agreed to release some information of public interest. It is hoped they may include more details on deals that he was trying to do on behalf of Prince Andrew.
So what do we know about potential deals for Pitch@Palace so far?
In February, Sky News confirmed that palace officials had a meeting last summer with tech funding company StartupBootcamp to discuss a potential tie-up between them and Prince Andrew relating to his Pitch@Palace project.
The palace wasn’t involved in the fine details of a deal but wanted guarantees to make sure it wouldn’t impact the Royal Family in the future. Sky News understands from one source that the price being discussed for Pitch was around £750,000 – there are, however, reports that a deal may have stalled.
Photos we found on the Chinese Chamber of Commerce website show an event held in Asia between StartupBootcamp and Innovate Global, believed to be an offshoot of Pitch.
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Who is alleged Chinese spy, Yang Tengbo?
Documents, released in relation to the investigations into Mr Tengbo, have also shown how much the duke has always seen Pitch as a way of potentially making money. One document from 21 August 2021 clearly states “the duke needed money at the time, and saw the relationships with China through Pitch as one possible source of funding”.
But Prince Andrew’s apparent intention to use Pitch to make money has led to concerns about whether he is unfairly using the contacts and information he gained when he was a working royal.
Norman Baker, former MP and author of books on royal finances, believes it is “a crude attempt to enrich himself” and goes against what the tech entrepreneurs thought they were signing up for.
Read more:
Who is Yang Tenbo?
Virginia Giuffre says she has days to live
Emails between Andrew and Epstein revealed
He told Sky News: “The data given by these business people was given on the basis it was an official operation and not something for Prince Andrew, and so in my view, Prince Andrew had no right legally or morally to take the data which has been collected, a huge amount of data, and sell it…
“And quite clearly if you’re going to sell it off to StartupBootcamp, that is not what people had in mind. The entrepreneurs who joined Pitch@Palace did not do so to enrich Prince Andrew,” he said.
Rich Wilson was one tech entrepreneur who was approached at the start of Pitch@Palace to sign up, but he stepped away when he spotted a clause in the contract saying they’d be entitled to 2% equity in any funding he secured.
He feels Prince Andrew is continuing to use those he made a show of supporting.
He said: “It makes me feel sick. I think it’s terrible – that he is continuing to exploit unsuspecting tech founders in this way. A lot of them, I’m quite grey and old in the tooth now, I saw it coming, but clearly most didn’t. And a lot of them were quite young.
“It’ll be their first venture and you’re learning on the trot, so to speak. So to take advantage of people in such a major way – that’s an awful, sickening thing to do.”
We approached StartupBootcamp who said they had no comment to make, and the Duke of York’s office did not respond.
With reports that a deal may have stalled, it could be a big setback for the duke – especially with questions still about how he’ll continue to pay for his home on the Windsor estate now that the King no longer gives him financial support.
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