Features / Cost of living
‘The primary goal of this campaign is to make ourselves heard’
“I’ve got a lot of family on prepayment metres” says Aidan, when Bristol24/7 meets him and Alison at her home in Horfield.
“I’ve got a lot of family on low paid jobs, NHS workers, teachers, and carers. They’re all terrified of the prospect of not being able to put food on the table,” he continues.
Aidan is a software engineer from St Paul’s. He joined Don’t Pay Bristol in August as its BS2 representative, covering St Werburgh’s and St Paul’s.
is needed now More than ever
Sat on her wheelchair close by is Alison Fenton, also from Horfield. Alison is permanently in her wheelchair, and relies on electricity in every part of her daily life, from the front door to her chair lift.
She joined Don’t Pay in August after facing multiple bailiffs and mounting bills. She doesn’t know if she will be able to pay her bills this winter.
Don’t Pay UK is a national campaign encouraging people to cancel their energy payments en masse in protest of rocketing fuel costs and to demand they be reduced to an affordable level.
The campaign has three demands:
- Reverse the energy price cap to pre-April 2021 levels
- End all enforcement of prepayment metres, which are often used by the poorest but result in higher tariffs.
- No-one is cold this winter, via an emergency social energy tariff which would mean those on lower incomes pay a lower unit price for energy than wealthier people.
Alison says the movement gives her the community support she needs – photo: Mia Vines Booth
Aidan says the initial response to flyering has been fairly positive, and in his postcode alone, 27 people have signed up to be Don’t Pay organising members. Aidan and his peers have been speaking to local businesses and shop owners as well, many of whom have placed the flyers on shop windows in their own businesses.
The movement has certainly gathered pace recently in Bristol. Recent analysis named Bristol as the UK city with the fourth highest search interest in Don’t Pay UK after Sheffield, Leeds and Birmingham.
With some of the highest housing costs in the UK and a staggering waiting list, it’s not surprising that Bristol has risen to the challenge.
“You shouldn’t risk your standard of living to put profits in the pockets of rich energy wholesalers,” says Aidan.
As well as running their own drop in sessions this Saturday, Don’t Pay Bristol will also be joining the Enough is Enough campaign rally outside The Knights Templar Wetherspoons on the same day to gather support and raise more awareness.
Aidan wants to make it clear though that the Don’t Pay movement is a bipartisan issue: “Don’t Pay is not party politics. This is purely between us and the energy companies.’
Responding to critics who have pointed out the risks involved in choosing not to pay bills, Aidan is clear where the campaign stands: ‘The primary goal of this campaign is to make ourselves heard, is to make the energy companies listen to us. It’s not put anybody in more financial trouble than they are already going to be in.”
“By pledging, you’re not saying you’re never going to pay your energy bill again, you’re saying you’re willing to help cause trouble and disrupt the energy businesses.”
“The goal is not to break the energy businesses. It’s to get the energy businesses to sit down and negotiate with us and listen to our demands and come to a reasonable conclusion.”
“We’re not stopping on October 1. October 1 is now going to be a day of action. We’re going to push really hard to raise the awareness of what’s actually happening. We will continue to gather support and fight this cause.”
Don’t Pay Bristol will be at Central Quaker Meeting House between 11am and 1:30pm on Saturday for drop-in sessions.
The Enough Is Enough rally is taking place at 12pm on Saturday in the Square, in front of The Knights Templar Wetherspoons, near Temple Meads.
Main photo: Mia Vines Booth
Read next:
- Tenants protest council’s ‘whitewashing’ rent commission
- ‘Don’t Pay’ bills storm reaches Bristol
- ‘I’m basically working for free – everything I earn goes on childcare’
- The invisible gap: How the cost of living crisis is affecting people in Bristol
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