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Montserrat Vilella, Councilor for Social Welfare of Reus City Council
"The Energy Poverty Table is more important than it seems and has a direct impact on people"
The Energy and Poverty Table of Tarragona and Reus is a space for planning, coordination, design of diagnostic interventions, analysis, debate, search for alternatives and proposal of solutions that guarantee access to energy consumption for vulnerable families.
On March 23, the Board held the fifth plenary, co-chaired by the Councilor for Social Welfare of the City of Reus and the Minister and President of the Municipal Institute of Social Services of Tarragona, Carla Aguilar.
We spoke this time with Montserrat Vidiella, co-president of this body.
- You have held a new meeting of the energy poverty table, what conclusions do you draw from it?
The Board has resumed activity with this new meeting. It was the reason and goal achieved because during the whole time of the pandemic it was stopped and we need to reactivate it.
- What is the purpose of this body?
We are in the same space both administrations of the territory, initially the City of Reus and Tarragona and open to join other administrations county councils and municipalities, as well as entities. We aim to have a space for reflection, for the exhibition of different experiences and to debate them to share experiences in the field of energy poverty.
Each administration acts, it is not a unit of action, but of reflection and sharing. Strategy can be derived on different issues as the table contemplates the technical and political side. It is a space that goes beyond the day to day. We share, analyze, and look at what strategies might be. We analyze the phenomenon of energy poverty. It is often greatly simplified in action when, on the contrary, it is a very multifaceted fact.
One example is to achieve the social good. When you land in the territory, from the City Council, the administration even closer now to the people we give them energy advice we do it to all the people who have help from the City Council, we are observing and advising these people that the social bond be removed in a percentage of more than 51%.
Of the people we serve between 70 and 80 percent we make a recommendation. We note that most people have poorly contracted energy.
Companies are also invited to the Table with a more listening role.
- How does the creation and operation of such a body affect the public?
It must allow us to make better policies. There comes a time when we analyze the aid we provide and see for example that many people have poorly contracted energy and we provide advice, such as the College of Industrial Technical Engineers of Tarragona. This policy comes out of this analysis of the table. You share it and we benefit from it. Tarragona will also rely on advice. The Table is more important than it seems and has a direct impact on people.
- What should local governments say about energy poverty? And the entities that are part of the Table?
We consider energy poverty because it is a phenomenon that since the previous crisis has been a very raw part of the families of our city. We often cannot resolve this on our own as an administration as it goes beyond municipal powers. Already in 2014 to propose motions in plenary to address what we believed we should do. Competences of the state and the Generalitat in 3 motions so that basic energy is guaranteed and people in vulnerability can pay according to their income.
- In a pandemic year like the one we have been through and the months ahead, what has the Table observed in relation to energy poverty?
What we need to do is give tools to be able to face new realities. Surely there are more people with difficulty paying their bills or other amusing things and we need to know what’s going on. Now the moratorium is proposed and we must be aware that moratoriums create debt and once this moratorium is lifted if you have a lot of debt you can not allocate resources to aid and companies if you do not leave the debt at zero do not make a plan for the future . If they change the rules of the game we will have to see how we adapt. In the Table we pick up what the need is. One of the things we had said is to make a common front from the City Councils. We are on the front line, we are the closest administration and we cannot help but have a voice and a vote.
- What actions are the City Councils such as Reus and Tarragona taking?
On the one hand, what would be the financial aid and in this the Generalitat helps us. We have always linked it to other issues not only paying bills but also what the problems were and how we could help with the individualized energy advice service of 30 or 45 minutes per family. We also do house audits and we can see a lot of questions about how they live and what they need. Of the 10,000 receipts from non-paying families, we ended up reporting to more than 3,000 by sending more than 10,000 certified letters. We have been exercising this proactivity for a long time.
Another part of energy poverty that is then often reflected in media images is people who do not have a housing occupancy meter.
This is another phenomenon that needs to be resolved and we must also be able to do it as a City Council.
Energy Poverty Table http://taulapobresaenergetica.cat/
Ministry of Personal Services of Tarragona City Council: 977 296 191 Department of Social Welfare of Reus City Council: 977 010 222 info@taulapobresaenergetica.cat