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Government sets out next steps on fuel poverty

Government sets out next steps on fuel poverty

News Release issued by the COI News Distribution Service on 21 October 2009

The Government’s four next steps to help low income homes deal with high energy bills are set out today, as the latest fuel poverty statistics are published.

The Government’s four next steps to help low income homes deal with high energy bills are set out today, as the latest fuel poverty statistics are published.

Four next steps:

1. Action to help the poorest insulate their homes. We are increasing obligations on energy companies to help the most vulnerable and plan to set a “Super” Priority Group obligation for the most vulnerable – such as poorer, older pensioners - as part of the extension to 2012 of the Carbon Emissions Reduction Target (CERT).

2. Provision of street by street help in low income neighbourhoods. Up to 90,000 homes in England, Scotland and Wales will receive help to get whole house energy makeovers to save hard-pressed families around £300 per year on energy bills. The first ten areas are today announced by British Gas as part of the Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP). Energy companies, in partnership with local authorities, will deliver around £350m of energy efficiency measures under CESP over the next three years.

3. Action on prices for the most vulnerable. The social tariffs offered by the energy companies are vital for those who face real hardship. We plan to put voluntary social tariffs on a statutory footing.

4. Tougher regulation to make sure all consumers get a fair deal. Improvements have already been made over the last year and we now plan to give Ofgem new powers to police abuses in the market. We will continue to push energy companies to pass on wholesale price reductions as far and as quickly as possible

The seventh annual Fuel Poverty Report is published today and spells out in full the Government’s strong package of measures to fight fuel poverty.

The latest official statistics, also published today, show 2.8 million homes in 2007 were classed as fuel poor in England. This is 300,000 less than we projected because incomes rose more than we envisaged during the period.

Energy and Climate Change Minister David Kidney said:

“We recognise there is still a mountain to climb on fuel poverty because of significant increases in fuel bills and that’s why we’re determined to redouble our efforts.

“We will build on the measures we’ve already brought forward, including the £20billion on benefits and programmes, without which 800,000 more people would have found themselves in fuel poverty.

“We plan to legislate to give new powers to the regulator to take action, make social tariffs mandatory not optional, and are planning new measures on energy efficiency targeted at the poorest.”

The Government’s package to tackle fuel poverty includes:

Improving energy efficiency in homes

- Figures officially released today show 1.9 million homes have already been insulated under the Prime Minister’s £1bn Home Energy Saving Programme announced last year. We are on track to insulate 6 million homes by 2011.

- 20% increase in CERT leading to a revised target of 185 million lifetime tonnes of carbon – the average annual savings of the programme are equivalent to the annual emissions of about 1 million homes.

- From January, direct mail low energy light bulbs will no longer count towards energy suppliers’ CERT obligation so other products, including more insulation will need to be promoted.

- We have improved the Warm Front Scheme which has helped more than 2 million vulnerable households since it began in June 2000 - 500,000 of those were in the last two years alone.

- More than 1 million social homes are warm, wind and weather-tight since the Decent Homes Standard was introduced in 1997, spending more than £29bn.

Improving income levels

- Winter fuel and cold weather payments are more generous for the second year running.

Tackling energy prices

- Britain’s Big Six energy suppliers spent £157 million on voluntary social programmes in 2008-09, a near three-fold increase compared with the year before

- Ofgem has changed the licences to prevent unfair price discrimination, going further than before to protect all consumers.

Notes to Editors

1. British Gas will carry out work through CESP on streets in Dundee, Glasgow, Swansea, Preston in Lancashire, Knowsley in Merseyside, Birmingham, Walsall, Blacon in Cheshire and the London Boroughs of Southwark and Haringey.

2. CESP will promote a “whole house‟ approach, and will be delivered through the development of community-based partnerships involving Local Authorities (LAs) along with energy suppliers and electricity generators, via a house-by-house, street-by-street approach. Partnership working will allow CESP to be implemented in a way that is best suited to individual areas and coordinated with existing initiatives. We estimate up to 100 schemes will be funded benefiting around 90,000 homes across Great Britain, and delivering a saving of nearly 2.9m tonnes of CO2 emissions.

3. We insulated 5 million homes under the Energy Efficiency Commitment between April 2002 and March 2008; there have been just over a million additional households insulated under the first year of CERT from April 2008. Around 3 million of these 6 million households were vulnerable ‘Priority Group’ households. In combination with other energy efficiency policies, 1.9 million homes have now been insulated under the Prime Minister’s £1bn Home Energy Saving Programme announced last year (April 2008 – December 2011).

4. The announcement of the Government’s intention to place social tariffs on a statutory footing was central to the initial findings of the fuel poverty review, which were integrated in the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan published on 15th July 2009. The Terms of Reference for the next phase of the review are at: www.decc.gov.uk <http://www.decc.gov.uk/>

5. The Government’s seventh annual fuel poverty report and the latest fuel poverty statistics can be viewed at: www.decc.gov.uk <http://www.decc.gov.uk/>

Contacts:

Department of Energy and Climate Change
nds.decc@coi.gsi.gov.uk

Philippa Heap
Phone: 0300 068 5218
philippa.heap@decc.gsi.gov.uk

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