Stop implying it's not so bad now because you grew up with no central heating and scraped ice off the windows.

[flashbac]

FFS

I also had no central heating in the house as a kid. There was a hole under the bathtub that cats would use to come in while you were freezing arse off on the loo. It was bloody grim. I don't wish it on anybody. People shouldn't have to be uncomfortable in their own bleeding homes for goodness sakes. It shouldn't be happening in this day and age. Stop defending it.

I grew up in a house without central heating. It was a fairly miserable existence. We had a gas fire in the kitchen which kept us warm in the morning before school. Mam would light the open fire around 3 o'clock and we'd all (eight of us) huddle together in the sitting room for the afternoon/night. The rest of the house was a no-go area in winter because of the cold. The coal fire was lovely and cheerful but not so lovely and cheerful when it was your turn to venture out into the cold to fill up the coal bucket from the coal bunker in the garden. Not to mention the work involved in clearing out the grate and setting the fire. Everyone had a hot water bottle and you'd have to remember to put it in your bed a bit before bedtime, so it would warm up the bed. You'd dress and undress at top speed so as to expose yourself to the frigid air for the absolute minimum. If it was a really cold night or morning, you'd endeavour to dress and undress under the covers. When I was around 20, my parents invested in central heating and I couldn't believe the difference it made. It really opened up the house. I could spend time in my bedroom without resorting to the sitting room for heat.

I can afford to heat my home (for now, at any rate) but I feel very sorry for those who can't and are having to make really difficult choices. You'd have to be very mean-spirited to tell people who are really stressed and worried and perhaps feeling a failure as a parent, that they'll just have to suck it up, because you had no central heating as a child and it didn't do you any harm .

One big difference between now and then is that now, I don't have open fireplaces or a working chimney.

Totally agree OP. Some people won't be able to afford to cook hot meals, let alone have the heating on.

It is not acceptable and the Government needs to do something fast. The cap on the daily standing charge should be a lot lower for a start. The energy companies have us over a barrel on that, we can reduce energy use as much as we can, but there is nothing we can do about the standing charge.

@Thelnebriati

One big difference between now and then is that now, I don't have open fireplaces or a working chimney.

That's a good point too. Where I live in the north of Scotland, there's currently a big hooha about the council ripping out open fires in local authority homes, due to wanting to meet certain low-carbon targets. There's been quite a backlash from residents who are worried about the energy price rise and also being reliant on new 'low-emission' electrical sources of heat, given that bad weather up here in the last few months has resulted in two lengthy instances of power being off for days/up to a week.

Being cold does cause people harm and it is not good for houses either. They will become damp and unhealthy places to live in.

There were no disability benefits for disabled /sick people before early 1990s. Do people want to go back to that as well as no heating. I feel this Country is going backward.

Yup this was us.
I will say tho people please stop having to have the heating on high whilst you swan around in a t shirt in November cos that is just as unreasonable and you won’t feel the benefit

We might have grown up with ice on the windows but it was never a choice of food or heat. People just didn't have central heating. We all usually just had the one fire in the living room which was ok. It'll be much worse than that now

@RancidOldHag

Yes, everyone should be securely housed and warm enough.

This phrase isn't usually used to mean that they shouldn't be.

It's used to remind people that we haven't got it uniquely tough, and that it was just as bad (fuel crisis, inflation) in the 1970s

We coped then. We'll cope now.

And perhaps between times we will learn to make the changes when the country does have money to make a difference

For Christ's sake. We coped through the Black Death, through ww2, us Irish coped through a potato famine. Except those who didn't cope and died. In the Industrial revolution, children coped with working in mills and losing limbs to the machinery.

This is just a daft comment to say people have coped in the past.

It isn't the hallmark of a civilised country, where 25-30% of kids are in poverty. Where shareholders' dividends are prioritised above grinding poverty for millions.

100 % agree op! Things were tough years ago but doesn't make current events okay or that we can't moan about it now!

The divide in this country is shocking. Bet all the politicians and tax avoiders don't have to worry about heating their houses!

It's the same with a lot of things. Not really relevant to op but get it from in laws about online food shopping for one example, constantly told we managed back in the day without online food shopping. Blah blah, I live in the middle of nowhere, probably more cost effective for me to get it delivered anyway!

@Mrsorganmorgan

I grew up with ice on the inside of the windows and only one coal fire in the kitchen. I now have a husband who has had a stroke and feels the cold very much. Don't know what to do really. Does anyone think Sunak will change his mind about this stupid Spring Statement. I have a granddaughter on benefitsand I know that she will find this very hard.

I think they will have to look at helping the lowest income families and families like yours with ill and disabled people.

It's a blunt, goady way of making a very valid point though. Mn never fails to amaze me in particular, people bleat about the environment then wander around the house in TShirts in winter. I only know one person IRL that does this. Its lazy, entitled and hypocritical. Someone on another thread said people only care about this stuff when it hits their pockets, rather than any genuine care for how wasteful they're being with their resources.

I was without a boiler for 9 months as I couldn't afford to get it fixed. Luckily we had an electric shower, but zero heating. It wasn't pleasant, but I managed. Its not a race to the bottom but equally society has become spoiled by the convenience of just turning the heating up rather than being sensible. It's a shame that any changes made now won't make much difference in actual savings as the price hikes have been so steep

@Siameasy

Yup this was us. I will say tho people please stop having to have the heating on high whilst you swan around in a t shirt in November cos that is just as unreasonable and you won’t feel the benefit

SIL heats their flat to 28 degrees.

That is unendurably hot and stuffy.

A few months ago we worried about elderly people not being able to afford to heat their houses, now we’re telling them to suck it up because they’ve done it before.

Hands up if you think Rishi will have to turn his heating down or examine his food bills at all in response to these price hikes.

I think you are being a little bit unreasonable.

UK citizens, even the really poor ones consume more resources than the average human. If everything was divided equally across the world, the average living standard in the UK would be a bit worse, but across the world would be a lot better.

On the other hand, as things are in a fundamentally unfair world, the UK has easily enough wealth to provide good quality housing , education and healthcare to all of its citizens, it just chooses not to.

I think you are being a bit unreasonable. Given the choice, my 3 teenagers would have our house heated constantly at 21° . DH and I both grew up in houses heated by open fires and an aga in kitchen. We have hearing at 17/18 and only for a couple of hours morning and evening. We dress warmly if cold and have a pile of blankets to snuggle under if watching TV etc. My daughter's appear in knickers and crop tops moaning about how freezing it is and we tell them to go and put some clothes on and stop being ridiculous.
However, being constantly freezing, even when dressed warmly is miserable so there needs to be a balance. I have a friend who moans about the cost of heating and she had it on all the time at about 22°. I cannot spend any time in her house as so warm and study.

I grew up in a house with a gas fire in the front room and no other heating. I would say it never did me any harm but I’m asthmatic and the damp really used to mess me up. It’s not on to make people go back to that level of discomfort. Turning down the thermostat to save the polar bears is one thing, poverty-induced sopping wet walls and hands that hurt with the cold while you’re indoors is something else.

It’s used to remind people that we haven't got it uniquely tough, and that it was just as bad (fuel crisis, inflation) in the 1970s

It’s like saying there are children starving in Africa, or people being bombed in Ukraine. Pointless, unhelpful and patronising.

There's a happy medium though isn't there.

No one is suggesting scraping ice from the inside of windows or wearing twenty layers in the house is ok however there is a generation that thinks if they can't have the tumble on every day and the heating constantly at 25⁰c then they are in fuel poverty.

The point people are making about the bad old days with the frequent power cuts, no heating and inflation at 18% is this really isn't that bad.

I will say tho people please stop having to have the heating on high whilst you swan around in a t shirt in November cos that is just as unreasonable and you won’t feel the benefit

Nobody choosing between eat and heat is doing that.

@RightOnTheEdge

I have just been reading a news article on Facebook about a woman who was interviewed on This Morning talking about how her family will struggle with the energy rises. She was saying she's stopped using her car and got rid of her tumble drier etc, basically she's done everything she can to save money but she's still struggling.

The comments were full of people doing the competitive poor childhood thing.
"I had to sleep in a bedroom with ice on the windows and I survived!"
"Well I had to sleep in a bedroom with ice on the window and one threadbare blanket and ate one meal a day but I didn't do me any harm!"
"Yeah well I lived in Elsa's ice Palace and ate nothing but snowballs and walked to school in bare feet and it didn't hurt me!"
🙄🙄
It's so tedious.

Most of the comments were terrible, all about how the mother (its always the mother's fault) should have kept her legs together and not had kids and ranting about lazy scroungers not wanting to work and expecting handouts. How they couldn't be that badly off because the woman didn't look starving
The parents were married, both worked and didn't claim benefits.
Their 17 Yr old daughter was in the comments trying to defend her mother and fighting a losing battle. I felt really sorry for her.

This reminds me of Fil saying that dh slept in a draw when he was a baby.

How wonderful but it's not the 70's anymore ( plus mil pointed out that fil.was full of shit and dh had a cot). It is competitive race to the bottom and some people love it. Normally the ones who have soare cash ( fil has at least 6 holidays abroad a year and a four bed detached house but thinks his grandchild should sleep in a draw. Its bizarre)

Yes we are going backwards because THIS IS WHAT PEOPLE VOTED FOR.

WE put these people in power, created a mandate for brexit, chose a party who prioritise their mates and getting richer. If you don’t like it change your vote and open your eyes, you’ve been conned.

YANBU OP. Once upon a time, you had to go into the garden to pee. I bet those mocking the cold don't do that now because they have indoor toilets. Times change, life moves on. NO ONE should be sat in a cold house that they can't afford to heat in 2022.

and the heating constantly at 25⁰c then they are in fuel poverty.

I wish people would stop making appropriate thermostatic pronouncements. My last new build was a comfortable temperature with the thermostat set to 20. The new build I live in now feels cold at that temperature. I have no idea why, but that how it is.

The point people are making about the bad old days with the frequent power cuts, no heating and inflation at 18% is this really isn't that bad.

And that wasn’t as bad as the previous generations living in slums during the war, but people still struggled and complained to the point there were riots. Society has moved on. We should be glad of that.