Report: More People Die From Not Being Able To Afford Fuel Than From Traffic Accidents In The U.K.

The British government has just released the findings of an independent report it commissioned last year. The report, conducted by Professor John Hills, director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics, examines the problem of fuel poverty, which involves people being unable to afford the fuel to heat their homes.

Hills’s research has found that 2,700 United Kingdom residents die every year due to causes related to fuel poverty — more than the country loses to road accidents:

This problem is significantly greater for those living in the coldest quarter of homes than those in the warmest quarter of homes. Using this difference, recent analysis attributes about a fifth of excess winter deaths to living in cold homes. Even if only half of this is due to fuel poverty, that would still mean 2,700 deaths – more than the number who die on the roads – every year.

As the U.K.’s Green Party notes in a press release, the “Big Six energy companies earned over £30billion in profits over the last five years.” The Greens are calling on the government to enact policies that would require these companies to use their profits to help people afford fuel.