Member News
By Tony Grew - 14th March 2011
The energy secretary has announced that an LSE professor will lead an independent review of fuel poverty policy.
Chris Huhne said Prof. John Hills will consider fuel poverty "from first principles, to determine the nature of the issues at its core, including the extent to which fuel poverty is distinct from poverty more generally, and the detriment it causes".
Hills will also develop possible formulations for a future definition of fuel poverty and consider the underlying causes.
This will "help government focus its resources on those who need most support and measure the cost effectiveness of different interventions".
Hills may consider the non-means tested winter fuel payments for pensioners and other issues such as the energy companies' obligations on energy saving and insulation of homes.
A leading charity has welcomed Hills' appointment as an opportunity to "fill the void in policy on fuel poverty, and help shape a new strategy".
Age UK's fuel poverty spokesman Mervyn Kohler said the number of people in fuel poverty grows with every rise in energy prices.
"Parliament passed an Act in 2000 on the eradication of fuel poverty in vulnerable households by 2010," Kohler said.
"A year on from that deadline and after we've just come through one of the coldest winters in recent memory, the government's fuel poverty strategy is a dismal failure.
"Successive governments have watched fuel prices rise and the number of households in fuel poverty soar since 2004.
"More than five million households – half of whom are older households – need to spend more than 10 per cent of their available income to keep adequately warm.
"They are under-heating their homes today, rationing their consumption of fuel – and increasing their exposure to ill-health and misery and depression."
The Hills review is expected to deliver interim findings to ministers in the autumn and a final report by January 2012.
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