For years, politicians have promised that the era of spiralling energy bills would come to an end. Yet today, as Ofgem prepares to announce a 4% increase to the energy price cap, households across the UK are bracing for another winter defined not by comfort or security, but by fear. According to Cornwall Insight, this latest rise will push gas and electricity prices to their highest levels in three years. For millions, the crisis is not easing, it is deepening.

The phrase #HeatOrEat was once a warning. It has now become a lived reality.

A Winter of Impossible Choices

Every winter, frontline organisations hear the same stories:

Parents skipping meals so their children can stay warm.

Older people rationing heating to one room.

Disabled people forced to choose between running essential medical equipment and buying groceries.

Carers cutting back on their own needs to keep the person they support safe.

These are not isolated cases. They are symptoms of a system that has normalised hardship.

Energy is not a luxury. It is a basic requirement for health, dignity, and survival. Yet households are being pushed into decisions that no one in a wealthy nation should ever face.

Record Profits, Rising Bills

The injustice is stark. While families brace for higher bills, major energy and oil companies continue to report enormous profits. Shareholders benefit. Executives benefit. The market benefits.

The public does not.

The gap between corporate profit and public suffering has become impossible to justify. It is not caused by individual behaviour or household wastefulness. It is the result of policy choices, choices that can be changed.

The Case for a Windfall Tax

A windfall tax on excessive energy company profits is not radical. It is responsible governance. It is a recognition that when essential services become unaffordable, intervention is not optional, it is necessary.

A targeted windfall tax would:

• Reinvest profit taken from crisis conditions back into the public good
• Reduce pressure on household bills
• Support long‑term investment in affordable, sustainable energy
• Demonstrate that government is willing to act decisively in the public interest

The public cannot absorb another winter of rising costs while corporations accumulate wealth at unprecedented levels.

Leadership Must Step Up

Local leaders have a role to play too.

Andy Burnham this is the moment to step forward.

Champion a windfall tax. Push for urgent action to bring down the cost of energy. Use your platform to ensure that the voices of those living in cold homes, damp flats, and impossible circumstances are not ignored.

People need leadership that recognises the scale of the crisis and refuses to accept it as inevitable.

A Crisis We Can End

The #HeatOrEat dilemma is not a natural disaster. It is a political and economic failure, one that can be corrected with courage, fairness, and urgency.

No one should have to choose between heating their home and feeding their family in 2026.

No one should be punished for simply trying to survive.

And no one should be left behind while profits soar.

This winter, the question is not whether people will struggle. They already are.

The question is whether leaders will act.