MPs slam government for rise in fuel poverty
Fuel poverty is rising in England despite government targets to eradicate the problem in vulnerable households by 2010 and all homes by 2016, MPs have warned.
The environment, food and rural affairs committee said more than five million UK households suffered from fuel poverty last winter, adding that the 2010 target was now likely to be missed.
Ministers should have reviewed their policies earlier to counter rising fuel prices, they said.
‘The major factor in derailing the government’s progress towards its 2010 target was the unanticipated and unplanned-for hike in electricity and gas prices,’ the report said.
‘While it is not always possible to accurately forecast price movements it is nevertheless possible to set out a range of likely price scenarios.’
The committee also criticised government plans to provide basic insulation in all UK homes by 2015, claiming the completion date was ‘unambitious’ and lacked practical details on how the scheme will be delivered.
Winter fuel payments will cost the government more than £2.7bn this year, even though only 12% of recipients are in fuel poverty.
Taxing this money and stopping payments to higher rate tax payers would save £250m a year, which could be used to fund a much larger programme of energy efficiency improvements for those in fuel poverty, the committee said.
While energy companies are obliged to invest more than £3.3bn over three years in the Carbon Emissions Reductions Target, which includes improving energy efficiency in some of the poorest households, MPs said firms had been charging customers to fund the programme.
'There is a lack of transparency over who pays for such schemes,’ the report said.
‘Ofgem [the electricity and gas regulator] should require energy companies to provide customers with information on their bills about the costs they are paying each year as well as to report annually on each energy company’s overall spend on such schemes including the use of their own funds.’
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