PRESS RELEASE

FOX: PROSECUTE POWER COMPANIES

GUILTY OF PRICE FIXING

Scottish Socialist Party leader Colin Fox has called on the Government to prosecute any of the big six energy companies found guilty of manipulating gas prices by the ongoing OFGEM/Financial Services Authority enquiry.

Speaking after Energy Minister Ed Davey announced an enquiry into allegations of manipulation of wholesale gas prices in a market worth £300bn Mr Fox told us

‘With one in three families in Scotland shivering in fuel poverty and unable to afford their gas and electricity bills – bills which have doubled in the past 5 years - these allegations [of price fixing] will be met with widespread outrage.

‘Clearly we have to await the outcome of the OFGEM/FSA investigations but if these allegations prove to be true there will be uproar, and not least from those whose voice this debate has so far lacked, millions of working class families suffering the daily indignity of fuel poverty.

‘I call on David Cameron and Alex Salmond to make the abolition of fuel poverty their number one priority this winter. The Warm Home and Energy Conservation Act of 2000 promised every household the legal right to affordable fuel and yet that promise is further away than ever.

‘Millions of people already believe these bills are too high and that the energy companies are profiteering. Moreover the winter fuel allowance is utterly inadequate and so is Government investment in insulation and energy saving schemes. But above all the provision of this vital utility needs to be returned to the public sector to end multinational energy companies making billions in profits whilst driving millions and millions of families in Britain into fuel poverty and an early grave.’

ENDS

Note; The SSP pamphlet ‘END FUEL POVERTY AND POWER COMPANY PROFITEERING’ is available from SSP, 93 Hope Street, Glasgow G2. Priced £3.00