Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2009/jun/10/fuel-poverty-energy
Select committee claims ministers are failing millions of vulnerable families and demands urgent action on fuel poverty
The government was today urged to offer more help to the millions of families in fuel poverty due to rising energy prices.
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs select committee said ministers had failed to meet statutory obligations to end fuel poverty and called on them to set up an action plan to help people struggling with energy bills as a matter of urgency.
It warned the resources available for tackling fuel poverty were “inadequate and getting worse”. Anyone spending at least 10% of their income on heating and lighting their home is deemed to be living in fuel poverty. In a series of recommendations, the select committee called for the winter fuel payment to be no longer given to people paying higher-rate tax. Instead it wants the money to fund energy efficiency programmes aimed at helping the fuel poor and vulnerable households.
It also called on the government to consolidate its range of energy efficiency programmes into one comprehensive scheme to upgrade all homes in England, with the improvements delivered by local authorities.
Committee chairman Michael Jack, said: “We need action and clarity – not further consultation – to tackle the three elements that drive fuel poverty: prices, income and energy efficiency levels.
“The government must act swiftly to bring forward practical measures before next winter, using technologies that are already well understood, to help the millions of households that remain in fuel poverty.”
The committee said the Warm Front programme, the government’s main scheme to help vulnerable households cut their energy bills, should have its budget increased and that it should be extended to include all hard-to-treat properties.
It recommended a central budget be created into which energy companies pay their carbon emissions reduction target contributions, so the cash could be pooled with money from other programmes to fund home upgrades.
Energy regulator Ofgem should be ordered to ensure energy companies tell customers about social tariffs and who is eligible for them, to help increase competition for certain customers, such as those who use pre-payment meters, it said.
Jonathan Stearn, energy expert for Consumer Focus, said it was “outrageous” that there were still more than 5 million vulnerable households struggling to afford to heat and power their homes.
He added: “The government’s energy efficiency schemes are simply not up to scratch. Immediate investment is needed in a radical and co-ordinated action plan if we are to lift millions of the poorest pensioners, families and disabled people out of fuel poverty and cut carbon emissions.”
Michelle Mitchell, charity director for Age Concern and Help the Aged, said: “The report sounds a loud wake-up call for the government, whose strategy to tackle fuel poverty is miles away from reaching its targets.
“Ministers should immediately set out to implement the committee’s recommendations, reviewing the Warm Front Scheme and producing a new ‘road map’ to bring home a more ambitious energy efficiency plan.
“Focusing the winter fuel payment on fuel-poor households could give an edge to the government’s strategy to tackle fuel poverty, as long as the system required to implement it is simple and workable.”
Campaigners say the number of householders in fuel poverty has been one of Labour’s greatest failures. In March last year, its own advisers, the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group, said the government appeared to have given up trying to hit its legally binding target to reduce fuel poverty. The group criticised ministers for cutting the grants programme aimed at those in fuel poverty by a quarter during the comprehensive spending review.
This, it said, was despite the Treasury receiving significantly higher VAT receipts on the back of gas and electricity prices which have doubled in recent years.
- Energy bills
- Household bills
- Poverty
- Consumer affairs