Fuel Poverty

Lord Ezra Excerpts

Thursday 16th February 2012 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Ezra]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they have further measures in mind to deal with fuel poverty.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Energy and Climate Change (Lord Marland)]

My Lords, the coalition is committed to helping people, especially in low-income vulnerable households, to heat their homes more affordably. The Government commissioned Professor John Hills to carry out an independent review of the fuel poverty target and definition in the context of ensuring that available resources are focused where they will be most effective in tackling the problems underlying fuel poverty. Professor Hills published his interim report on 19 October, and a final report will be published shortly.

[Lord Ezra]

My Lords, bearing in mind that some 5 million homes, over 20 per cent of all the homes in Britain, are in fuel poverty as presently defined, can the Minister indicate the annual rate at which homes are currently being taken out of fuel poverty? Secondly, do the Government remain committed to the objective of eliminating fuel poverty by all reasonably practical means by 2016, as laid down in the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000?

[Lord Marland]

It is very good to see the noble Lord in his place. Of course, his position on this is very well recognised, having been what I was brought up to know as “King Coal”. I am grateful that he should ask such important questions.

Clearly, since 2005, fuel poverty in the UK has gone up from 2.5 million homes to 5 million now. This is a very serious problem with which all of us wish to grapple, particularly in these times of economic difficulty. The Government are committed to that. I do not want to pre-judge Professor Hills’ report, but we initiated it and we look forward to it.

On the noble Lord’s second point, of course we are committed to reducing fuel poverty to nothing. In an ideal world, we would be doing it now. We have reworked the definition, which I think is fundamental. However, until we get the report we will not be able to comment much further on that.