15 December 2010

On the eighth day of Christmas, let’s keep the bills down for families

On the ‘eighth day of Christmas’, the Green Party today suggested a practical way to keep power bills under control for families struggling to make ends meet – a progressive power pricing system.

“Bills pile up at Christmas, and it can be a real struggle for families to make ends meet,” Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei said.

“Power bills are at their highest in winter, but even in summer they can be very expensive, and it can be a real challenge to keep on top of them and all the other expenses people face at this time of year.

“Too often – as we heard from the Children’s Social Health Monitor earlier this week – high power bills cause families cut to back on heating and other essentials in order to keep food on the table.

“This seriously harms the health and wellbeing of our kids, and leads to negative consequences later in life.”

The Green Party proposed a progressive pricing system for electricity in its ‘Mind the Gap’ plan to tackle growing inequality and guarantee the essentials for all New Zealand children.

“A progressive pricing system for electricity means locking in a near-cost price for all electricity users, up to a certain level. For many households this would be enough to achieve a safe, healthy level of warmth, at an affordable price.

“It would bring down the monthly power bill for thousands of homes around the country, and it would provide a real incentive for households and business to conserve electricity, as any power used above the bulk level would be charged at a higher price.

“The net effect would be to make electricity more affordable for everyone, and to help prevent families from taking steps to cut costs that negatively impact on their health and wellbeing.

“We’re in a unique position to introduce a scheme like this in New Zealand because the bulk of our electricity-generation assets are still owned by the state. They’re public assets, and we can make them work better for everyone.

“We know that a scheme like this would help thousands of people – it’s estimated that 1 in 4 households lives in ‘energy poverty’ right now. That’s 410,000 households around the country spending more than 10 percent of their income just to keep warm.

“At Christmas time, financial stresses like power bills and other expenses are at their most profound.

“This Christmas, a progressive pricing system for electricity is on our wish-list to guarantee our kids the essentials, reduce the gap between the haves and have nots, and help to build a stronger community that’s better for everyone,” Mrs Turei said.

Each working day until Christmas, the Green Party is highlighting a key issue related to inequality, and presenting Green solutions to those issues.

ENDS

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