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Public power for communities: end energy poverty

Energy bills shouldn't be a coin toss. We're campaigning for community-owned renewable energy, a social tariff for low-income households, and an end to the cycle where profits flow to shareholders while pensioners ration heating.

Organising
SJN climate working group + Fuel Poverty Action
Starts
1 Jun 2026
Public power for communities: end energy poverty

We have the technology. We have the wind. We have the desire among communities to own and run their own energy. What we lack is the political will to back them. This campaign builds that.

Why now

Energy bills have outpaced wages every year for the last six. The "Big Five" have paid out tens of billions in dividends while average household bills doubled. Meanwhile, dozens of community energy schemes — solar on schools, small hydro in valleys, community wind — sit ready to scale, blocked only by hostile regulation and lack of capital.

What we want changed

  • A statutory social tariff that caps energy bills as a share of household income for low-income households.

  • A community energy fund seeded with windfall taxes on excess profits.

  • Reform of grid connection charges that currently make community schemes uneconomic.

  • A public stake in any new offshore wind capacity, so the public benefits from the public commons.