Llanelli MP calls for park homes energy cash clarity

Llanelli MP, Dame Nia Griffith, has called on Conservative UK Government ministers to outline how people who live in Park Homes on a permanent basis will receive much needed help towards their energy bills.

The MP met recently with residents at Poplar Court, Cross Hands, who are currently in the dark as to how they will get the £400 Energy Bills Support Grant payment which will go towards the rising costs of heating and lighting their homes.

Along with many other Park Home families in Llanelli and across the country, they don’t receive their bills directly from an energy supplier. Instead, energy companies bill the site owner, who then, in turn, bills individual households. As a result, there is no clear path as to how the support payment will be made.

The subject was raised in Parliament last week by Dame Nia during Wales Questions, when she stressed that the uncertainty needed to be urgently cleared up by the UK Government, so that residents could plan ahead. She has also now followed the matter up in a letter to David TC Davies MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, in the Wales Office.

Dame Nia Griffith, MP for Llanelli said:

“This issue really needs to be addressed by the UK Government.

Many of those living full time in Park Homes are pensioners on fixed incomes who are very concerned about their impending energy bills. They are understandably anxious to know if and how they will be able to access this grant.

I can see why it would not be desirable to make multiple separate payments to site owners for each individual household and I have already asked Carmarthenshire County Council about whether they have been approached about being involved as they will have all the information necessary to make things simpler. However, they confirmed again to me last week that, to date, they have had no information.

It is only fair to the residents involved that a sensible way forward on this is found as soon as possible so that they can know for definite that they are going to get the help they rightly deserve.”