Debate contribution: Household Energy Costs

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 7 October 2025.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

7 October 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Household Energy Costs

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5165110

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I support the motion and its call for social housing redesign and renewable energy integration. Not only do we need a mass expansion of social housebuilding, but those homes should be built to modern, energy-efficient standards with the lowest carbon footprint possible. It has been referred to that Britain has a £2 billion green homes grant, while, in the South, there was a €90 million fund for retrofitting, but, once again, in the North, there is nothing. There is no plan or funding to make the massive improvements that are needed to provide energy-efficient homes and affordable energy bills. It has also been stated that over 40% of people here are fuel poor, spending over 10% of their total household expenditure on energy costs. Some 27% of households went without heating or electricity in the past two years as they simply could not afford the bills. That is an increase of 8% from the previous year. Every day, people are wearing coats indoors, staying in bed to keep warm, showering in work, skipping meals, taking out loans and getting into debt just to manage their energy bills. That is totally unacceptable. Everyone has the right to secure, warm, energy efficient and affordable housing. Unfortunately, that seems more like a distant pipe dream than a reality. On the private rented sector and temporary accommodation, it should be noted that energy efficient standards in private rented properties are often exceptionally poor, and it can be argued that they do not exist at all. For example, 75% of housing association stock here is at an energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of C or above. By contrast, in 2023, Ulster University found that just 25% of private rented properties have a rating of C or above. Not only are landlords ripping tenants off with extortionate rents, but they are content to let their tenants live in leaky, energy-inefficient homes. When those tenants report inevitable issues with damp and mould, they are often threatened with eviction or rent hikes. It is not just private tenants who are paying the price for energy-inefficient homes. Damp and mouldy single lets are bought or rented out from private landlords by the Housing Executive, Mears and other temporary accommodation providers. Families are expected just to be grateful to have a roof over their heads and to stay silent about a house that is falling apart around them. Again, that is totally unacceptable. I have been contacted by a family with mould growing in their oven due to structural damp in the kitchen. Another constituent could not keep a wooden wardrobe in one of her children's bedrooms because the wood kept rotting. I have been contacted by multiple residents who are dealing with insect infestations due to persistently damp conditions. All those families are living in single-let temporary accommodation and spending a fortune on heating homes that are incredibly energy inefficient and probably need to be razed to the ground and rebuilt. When those tenants report to the Housing Executive or other temporary accommodation providers, they are told —

No, sorry. They are told to keep the windows open, including in the middle of winter, or keep the heating on longer, without a thought for how a homeless family can afford to keep the gas running all day. That amounts to nothing more than victim blaming. Asylum-seeking people and migrant families are often met with institutional racism. They are told that they just do not understand the climate here. I have also been told directly by housing providers that people from the Middle East, in particular, have a cultural habit of just throwing water all over the place in their homes, when, in fact, it is that their homes are inefficiently protected and energy inefficient. That is just the definition of victim blaming and racism and is totally unacceptable. With regard to price caps, in the absence of the Executive launching a mass social housebuilding programme, retrofitting homes across all tenures and cracking down on neglectful, exploitative, private landlords and temporary accommodation providers, which seems exceptionally unlikely at the minute, we need to tackle the problem at its source. It is profiteering private companies that are behind high energy costs. Our energy system has been privatised at nearly every stage from generation to supply. It is time that the energy sector was publicly owned. There should be a windfall tax on big oil and gas companies that pollute our planet, such as Shell and BP. Energy price caps should be implemented to cut out-of-control energy bills. That is clearly a matter for the British Government, but the Executive need to recognise the clear link between fuel poverty and corporate profiteering and to push Starmer's Government to do something about it and give more power to the Utility Regulator. Given our high reliance on fossil fuels and the fact that Coolkeeragh — I hope that I have said that correctly — is down for maintenance at the moment, I am concerned that Kilroot and Ballylumford, which are owned by EP UK Investments, are demanding £2 million per hour for the use of their equipment. The question is this: will the Department for the Economy pay that extortionate fee?

867 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:23 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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