Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:52 am
Fuel poverty goal may be missed
The government's target to end fuel poverty amongst vulnerable consumers by 2010 may be missed, the National Consumer Council (NCC) has warned.
The NCC said unless energy suppliers were forced to reduce prices for low income consumers then fuel poverty numbers would not fall.
A person is defined as being fuel poor if 10% of their income goes on power - 4 million households are fuel poor.
"This is the last chance to take action," the NCC said.
The NCC's warnings will come as a damaging blow to the government and its agenda of alleviating poverty.
The reality is that people in fuel poverty are paying more for their energy than standard consumers
On Tuesday, official figures showed that the number of children living in poverty had risen in the past year, making it less likely that the government will achieve its long-stated goal of halving child poverty by 2010.
The number of people living in fuel poverty has risen sharply since 2005, in part because of rising gas and electricity prices.
Recently, the Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes said that more than 1.7 million households had become fuel poor since 2003.
Low income consumers also live in less fuel efficient homes and have more expensive to run pre-payment electricity and gas meters.
The NCC, along with consumer group Energywatch, called for the following measures to be included in the upcoming government Energy legislation:
* improved 'social tariffs' so that all energy firms are legally obliged to provide vulnerable low-income consumers with their cheapest tariff
* grants and financial help for low-income consumers to heat and insulate their homes.
"The reality is that people in fuel poverty are paying more for their energy than standard consumers... the government is not going to hit its target of eradicating fuel poverty unless this changes," said NCC chairman Lord Whitty.
In response, the Energy Retail Association (ERA), said gas and electricity providers already did an enormous amount for low income consumers.
"All the major energy suppliers already provide a range social tariffs for their low income customers. These include subsidised cheaper tariffs, trust funds and grants for their low income customers," Nicola Bowles, ERA spokeswoman, said.
"The major issue is identifying these households as only the government holds this data. "We would question the logic of imposing bureaucracy and red tape into this area when the market is already delivering results voluntarily," Ms Bowles added.
Junior, 26 from Tooting in South London, suffers from anaemia and is on disability benefits.
He spends more than 10% of his £500 monthly income on keeping warm.
"When you have an illness the last thing you should be worrying about is heating, for me it is the first thing," Junior said.
"I recently came out of hospital and found I had £1 credit left on my pre-payment gas meter. I had to go out to the shop to buy a top-up. This was potentially dangerous and an inconvenience to my health," Junior added.
The government's Energy White paper is set to be published in May and campaigners hope that it will contain measures to curb fuel poverty.
Source: BBC.co.uk
Please post any news stories about IVAs here:
http://www.iva.co.uk/forum/default.asp?CAT_ID=5
See my Blog:
http://ivanews.blogs.iva.co.uk
The government's target to end fuel poverty amongst vulnerable consumers by 2010 may be missed, the National Consumer Council (NCC) has warned.
The NCC said unless energy suppliers were forced to reduce prices for low income consumers then fuel poverty numbers would not fall.
A person is defined as being fuel poor if 10% of their income goes on power - 4 million households are fuel poor.
"This is the last chance to take action," the NCC said.
The NCC's warnings will come as a damaging blow to the government and its agenda of alleviating poverty.
The reality is that people in fuel poverty are paying more for their energy than standard consumers
On Tuesday, official figures showed that the number of children living in poverty had risen in the past year, making it less likely that the government will achieve its long-stated goal of halving child poverty by 2010.
The number of people living in fuel poverty has risen sharply since 2005, in part because of rising gas and electricity prices.
Recently, the Energy Efficiency Partnership for Homes said that more than 1.7 million households had become fuel poor since 2003.
Low income consumers also live in less fuel efficient homes and have more expensive to run pre-payment electricity and gas meters.
The NCC, along with consumer group Energywatch, called for the following measures to be included in the upcoming government Energy legislation:
* improved 'social tariffs' so that all energy firms are legally obliged to provide vulnerable low-income consumers with their cheapest tariff
* grants and financial help for low-income consumers to heat and insulate their homes.
"The reality is that people in fuel poverty are paying more for their energy than standard consumers... the government is not going to hit its target of eradicating fuel poverty unless this changes," said NCC chairman Lord Whitty.
In response, the Energy Retail Association (ERA), said gas and electricity providers already did an enormous amount for low income consumers.
"All the major energy suppliers already provide a range social tariffs for their low income customers. These include subsidised cheaper tariffs, trust funds and grants for their low income customers," Nicola Bowles, ERA spokeswoman, said.
"The major issue is identifying these households as only the government holds this data. "We would question the logic of imposing bureaucracy and red tape into this area when the market is already delivering results voluntarily," Ms Bowles added.
Junior, 26 from Tooting in South London, suffers from anaemia and is on disability benefits.
He spends more than 10% of his £500 monthly income on keeping warm.
"When you have an illness the last thing you should be worrying about is heating, for me it is the first thing," Junior said.
"I recently came out of hospital and found I had £1 credit left on my pre-payment gas meter. I had to go out to the shop to buy a top-up. This was potentially dangerous and an inconvenience to my health," Junior added.
The government's Energy White paper is set to be published in May and campaigners hope that it will contain measures to curb fuel poverty.
Source: BBC.co.uk
Please post any news stories about IVAs here:
http://www.iva.co.uk/forum/default.asp?CAT_ID=5
See my Blog:
http://ivanews.blogs.iva.co.uk