SalfordOnline
Your local community website
   Government 'to miss fuel poverty target' as bills continue to rise
The Government will miss its target to lift millions of vulnerable English households out of fuel poverty by this year, a committee of MPs warned. The Energy and Climate Change Committee also said a second goal to end fuel poverty among all homes in England by 2016 looked "increasingly difficult to hit". Households are considered to be in fuel poverty if they spend more than 10% of their income on heating rooms to a reasonable temperature. There were an estimated four million households in fuel poverty in the UK in 2007 - the most recent year that figures were available - double the number in 2004. In England alone, 2.8 million households faced disproportionately high bills, with 2.3 million of those classed as "vulnerable" because they included people who were over 60, families with children or those who were disabled or had long-term illnesses. The Government has a target to end fuel poverty among those vulnerable households by 2010 in England, and another to ensure that no person in England should have to live in fuel poverty by 2016. But despite multibillion-pound schemes to tackle the problem, spiralling fuel costs pushed average gas and electricity bills up by 125% between January 2003 and September 2008, a report by the committee said. And there was a danger further increases in fuel prices could land another 2.4 million UK households in fuel poverty by 2016, bringing the overall total up from current estimated levels of 4.6 million to seven million, the report warned. The MPs said improving energy efficiency in homes was the most effective way to reduce bills and lift people out of fuel poverty, and called for comprehensive "street-by-street" programmes to install measures such as insulation. They welcomed Government efforts such as the recently announced strategy to 'green' the UK's housing stock, which includes "pay as you save" programmes to fund eco-upgrades and getting councils to work with energy companies to improve energy efficiency. But they warned part of the problem was that the Government does not know exactly who the "fuel poor" are, so the people who need it most are not necessarily getting the help they need. And they called for more focused efforts to tackle fuel poverty, including a detailed "road map" to meet the 2016 target. They said the Government should focus the Warm Front scheme, which helps vulnerable households with energy efficiency measures, to those who need it most. And ministers should consider setting up a database of the energy efficiency standards of all homes in the country to target measures such as insulation most effectively. Padding Tipping, acting chairman of the committee, said: "One of the reasons tackling fuel poverty is so difficult is that the Government does not have a clear idea about who the fuel poor are. "Because it does not have that information, it has to use age and receipt of benefits as proxies for fuel poverty, and that means that some people who are fuel poor do not get help, while others who are not in fuel poverty receive assistance. "The Government has got to get better information, share that information more intelligently, and focus its help towards those who really need it." The report said winter fuel payments, paid to elderly people to help meet the cost of their energy bills, were not a suitable way of tackling fuel poverty and should be regarded purely as an income support. The MPs said the Government should look at extending plans for mandatory social price support - which would take the form of a fixed discount off fuel bills - for pensioners to include people with cancer or other serious illnesses. The report also called for an urgent review of the case for regulating the market for fuels bought by people who are not connected to the mains gas grid, who pay more for their fuels and are likely to be in fuel poverty as a result. Energy and climate change minister David Kidney pledged the Government would continue to do whatever it could to help people keep warm and cope with high energy bills. "Just this winter, the Warm Front scheme has carried out 25,000 heating or insulation jobs, leading to permanently reduced fuel bills, whilst our recent energy-efficiency strategy puts particular focus on the most vulnerable, requiring energy companies to work with local authorities and community groups to target poorer households for house-by-house, street-by-street eco-upgrades," he said. "It sets minimum energy-efficiency standards for social housing, and explains how we will do the same for rented property, including through tighter regulation." But Friends of the Earth executive director Andy Atkins said: "We need urgent and radical action to stop the scandal of people having to choose between spending money on heating or eating each winter. "The Government must introduce a comprehensive nationwide energy efficiency programme that prioritises those most at risk. "This will tackle fuel poverty, slash fuel bills, create new jobs and tackle climate change." Jonathan Stearn, energy expert for Consumer Focus, also said the Government needed to do more. "We support the committee's recommendation that social price support should be extended to cover people with cancer and other medical conditions, but it should go even further to cover a wider group of low income families and disabled people," he said. "Such a simple measure would have a huge impact, covering nearly half of households living in fuel poverty and struggling to meet their bills." Jenny Saunders, chief executive for National Energy Action, said: “NEA welcomes the Energy and Climate Change Committee report and in particular the recommendations to establish a road map for tackling fuel poverty to ensure that the 2016 target can be met. "We also welcome the acknowledgement that local authorities are key to delivering programmes at a local level. NEA has long since advocated the need for a national energy efficiency strategy delivered in partnership with local authorities and we look forward to the outcomes of the current CESP pilots. “The huge challenge however is to identify resources to tackle the problem. The fuel poor do not have the capital to fund energy efficiency improvements up front and rely on grant funding. "Government needs to identify new funding mechanisms to continue the grant assistance which has assisted millions of households to date.” Source: 24dash.com
Due to problems with spam only SalfordOnline members can now leave comments. Becoming a member of SalfordOnline only takes a minute, just hit the red Join Us button at the top right hand side of the page to create your Personal account. Got a news story? Need help with publicity for an event in Salford? Send it to newsdesk@salfordonline.com or call the SalfordOnline newsdesk on 0161 789 5377. |
