I hate to spoil anyone's holidays – and anyway, those chief officers and cabinet members currently sunning themselves will certainly not be having copies of The MJ next to the sun cream – unless, of course, they're planning a picture for the back page. But, to get to the point, if I were at senior level on a local authority, I would be taking a long, hard revisit at existing contingency plans for the winter, which is only three months away, and considering the council's risk-management and communications strategy in the event of a tragedy. The reason is the sharp hike last week in fuel prices. EDF Energy, the French-owned company, put gas prices up by 22% and electricity by 17%. British Gas, the UK's largest energy supplier, then followed suit, with rises of 35% in gas and 9% for electricity. The increases mean that average dual fuel costs have doubled in four years, from £580 to £1,126, according to Uswitch. We have been lucky in the past couple of years at having mild winters. A cold snap could cause real problems for low income households and, in particular, pensioners living off effectively-static incomes, and facing winter bills of hundreds of pounds. The temptation for the elderly to cut fuel costs by turning down their heating or even switching it off altogether could pose real problems for social service and housing departments. It only needs one fatality for the local authority to find itself embroiled in torrid local media headlines, even though the cause of fuel rises is global, and the companies which have hiked them up are plcs with shareholders to placate. And you can take it as read that the local media will be running human interest stories on single mums or lone grannies, unable to afford their rents or council tax because fuel bills have eaten up their income. With councils' role as community leaders in LSPs, now is the time for all partners to prepare for the worst, and hope it will never happen. Michael Burton Editor, The MJ
