Fight must continue on fuel poverty say Ministers

Ministers today said that they will continue with their fight against fuel poverty, as Environment Secretary Hilary Benn holds meetings with energy suppliers and the home insulation industry to discuss how to speed up work on increasing energy efficiency in the UK's homes.

The pledge comes as Defra and BERR jointly published the Sixth Annual Progress Report for the UK Fuel Poverty Strategy, and follows the recent announcement of a £1 billion Home Energy Saving Programme to increase fuel efficiency and help for vulnerable households.

Environment Secretary Hilary Benn said:

"Since that announcement the Government has launched a major advertising campaign to encourage energy efficiency and advise people of the assistance available. This has resulted in almost 57,000 calls to our Act on CO2 helpline in the fortnight since the announcement.

This is triple the number of calls normally received, so clearly people are responding to rising fuel bills.

"Today I met with energy suppliers and the home insulation industry to stress the need for all of us to work together as fast as possible to make more homes energy efficient, and to discuss with them the opportunities for bringing forward insulation activity so the maximum number of people are able to benefit this winter."

Today's report includes details of the progress of the Fuel Poverty Strategy, presents the statistics on fuel poverty in the UK for 2006, and provides an update on government policies and programmes to tackle the issue.

Key findings of the report include:

• The rise in the number of households in fuel poverty during 2006 was due to increases in consumer energy prices. The overall cost of energy to domestic consumers rose by 22 per cent in real terms between 2005 and 2006, with gas prices rising by 29 per cent and electricity prices rising by 19 per cent.
• In 2006 there were approximately 3.5 million households in fuel poverty across the UK, an increase of one million households since 2005. Of these, around 2.75 million households were classified as vulnerable. A vulnerable household is one that contains an elderly person, a child or someone who is disabled or suffering from a long term illness.
• In England, for 2006, there were estimated to be around 2.4 million fuel poor households, of which 1.9 million were vulnerable. This represents an increase of 900,000 households, including an additional 700,000 vulnerable households since 2005.

Guide to choosing the right personal loan? Search for the most competitive unsecured loans

Moneyextra.com recommends you take independent financial advice before acting on any article

2008-10-03 09:45:42 © Moneyextra.com