Plaid Cymru have launched a poster campaign calling for a windfall tax on energy companies to pay for a cut in home heating bills. The party’s advertising campaigning, with the slogan “A tax on keeping warm? Give us a break Gordon”, will be launched in Cardiff and travel around Wales on an ad-van, it will also be promoted online and distributed in tens of thousands of leaflets.

The party is campaigning for a package of measures to cut people’s heating bills, including funding a boost to energy-saving schemes, limits on the prices of energy suppliers and a temporary cut in VAT on home heating.

The average Welsh family is paying £517 more for gas and £236 more for electricity than five years ago, while UK energy companies’ profits have risen by over 500%. It is estimated that there will be 1,400 excess deaths in Wales this winter.

Launching the campaign, Plaid MEP Jill Evans commented:

“Far too many people are being forced to choose between heating their homes and feeding their families this winter. While energy companies’ profits have gone up more than five hundred percent over the last five years, the cost of heating has gone up extortionately. We have launched this campaign to send a message to Gordon Brown. His out-of-touch and out-of-ideas Labour party needs to show some guts, stop pandering to the large energy companies and act to cut people’s energy bills.”

Commenting on the fact that a cutting VAT on home heating would require a change in European rules, Jill Evans, Plaid’s Vice-President, added:

“It is time that Gordon Brown stopped making token gestures and actually acted on people’s side. A windfall tax would pay for a raft of energy efficiency measures and temporary cut in VAT. The UK government should be lobbying the Europe Union for a suspension of the tax on home heating. While Plaid is campaigning on people’s side, we have more of the same let-the-market-run-wild approach from Labour.”

Plaid is providing further information on its “On Your Side this Winter” website at www.warmingwales.plaidcymru.org.

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