Energy: Fuel Poverty

House of Lords written question – answered at on 22 March 2011.

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Photo of Lord Laird Lord Laird UUP

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Marland on 28 February (WA 220-1), whether they will consult on changing their definition of fuel poverty to take account of the effect winter fuel payments have on personal circumstances; how many households in (a) the United Kingdom overall, and (b) Northern Ireland, were in fuel poverty before winter fuel payments were started; and how many there are (1) assuming winter fuel payments are used to meet energy bills directly, and (2) assuming they are not.

Photo of Lord Marland Lord Marland The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change

The Government announced at the October 2010 spending review that to ensure that available resources are focused most effectively in tackling the problems underlying fuel poverty, they intended to initiate an independent review of the fuel poverty target and definition. The Government announced on 14 March 2011 that Professor John Hills will undertake the review. The terms of reference for the review can be found at: http://www.decc.aov.uk/en/content/cms/what_we_do/consumers/fuel_povertv/hills_review/hills_review.aspx.

Winter fuel payments were introduced in the winter of 1997-98. In 1998, it was estimated that there were around 4.75 million households in fuel poverty in the UK; no separate estimate exists for Northern Ireland for that year.

The number of fuel-poor households in the UK in 2008 was estimated to be 4.5 million. A more recent estimate for Northern Ireland shows around 302,000 households were fuel-poor in 2009.

If winter fuel payments were used to meet energy bills directly, around 850,000 fewer households in England (and around 1.25 million fewer households in the UK as a whole) are shown to need to spend more that 10 per cent of their income in order to meet the remaining costs of heating their home adequately in 2008. There are no separate estimates available for Northern Ireland.

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