Left Party wants legal definition of energy poverty and ban on power cut-offs
In a Bundestag motion, the Left Party calls for an emergency fund, basic electricity tariffs and a ban on energy disconnections. Up to 14 percent of households could be affected by energy poverty.
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On Thursday, the Left Party tabled a motion against energy poverty in the Bundestag. Under the title “Protect against cold and darkness”, the group calls for a bill that legally defines energy poverty and sets standard indicators to measure it. Energy disconnections and evictions leading to homelessness are to be banned. An emergency fund is to provide short-term help to affected households. The Left cites an estimate by the Öko-Institut that between five and 14 percent of households could be affected.
Further demands include covering electricity costs outside the standard allowance for basic income support recipients, calculating housing benefit on the basis of gross rent including heating, and abolishing the modernisation levy on tenants. The party also calls for a socially graduated climate dividend, a lower electricity tax, basic electricity tariffs and an increase in federal funding for efficient buildings to €17 billion. After a half-hour debate, in which Left MP Fabian Fahl among others spoke, the motion was referred to the economic affairs committee.
According to the motion, tenants, single parents, pensioners, low earners and people with disabilities are disproportionately affected. Energy prices are a central issue in this autumn's debate: according to ARD's Deutschlandtrend in early October, three quarters of respondents say the government's efforts against high energy prices do not go far enough.