'Heat or eat'... it's not just a sound bite parroted on the news - it's a real choice people in Greater Manchester are having to make
27.08.2022 - 21:33
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
On a sunny Friday in the lead-up to the busy August bank holiday weekend, Bury market is full of friendly faces. But it only takes a mere mention of this week's announcement - yet ANOTHER devastating announcement - on the rising energy price cap for anger and fear to begin to show.
On Friday (August 26), Regulator Ofgem announced that the price cap on energy bills will rise by 80 per cent to £3,549 for the average household in October - meaning energy bills, for many, will be around £2,300 more than a year earlier. Bury residents and business owners told the Manchester Evening News the dramatic news could force them to make a drastic choice - 'heat or eat' this winter.
Kathryn Webster, a grandmother who out with her three grandchildren, said she was worried her 93-year-old father will be unable to heat his home come October.
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"He lives on his own, he's in his 90s and needs heating," she said. "He relies on that. It's okay now because it's the summer, but I'm worried about the winter months.
"It will be down to heat or eat."
Kathryn blamed the government for not stepping in sooner, accusing them of 'selling out' to large energy companies. She said she wants them to stop privatisation and bring them back under national control.
"To me, the government should never have sold out to all these companies and left us in this situation, because this was always going to happen," she told the M.E.N. She also said she didn't have faith in other political parties to make changes.
"It's just devastation now, because at the end of the day you're trapped by the laws that are made and the money they're asking for. It's just going to get worse."
Her anger