Press Release

Fuel poverty strategy announcement "flimsy, inadequate and fails to meet the needs of older people," says Help the Aged"

11 September 2008
 
Reacting to the announcement from the Government today on fuel poverty, Mervyn Kohler, Special Adviser at Help the Aged comments:
 
"This is a flimsy and failing package which does little to help older people struggling to cope with soaring fuel bills.
 
"The statement simply lacks energy.  If the Government wants to meet its legal obligations to eradicate fuel poverty and reduce carbon emissions, ministers are going to have to deliver a lot more than this.  What we have in response to runaway energy prices and a fuel poverty strategy in terminal decline is nothing more than a half-defrosted package of inadequate intentions and initiatives.
 
"Proposing extra funds for home insulation is a positive move in the long term but it makes a mockery of the savage cuts the Government imposed in the recent Comprehensive Spending Review.  The fact that those cuts are having to be reversed is an indication of how out-of-touch with reality the Government has become on fuel poverty.  Enhancing home insulation is a step in the right direction, but older people need help right now as the winter months approach.  Individual changes which have been flagged by the Prime Minister are sensible and move in the right direction, but they are too little, too modest and will take too long to address the urgent plight of many pensioners today.
 
"The Government must provide significant funding to meet the crisis facing many older people this winter.  At the same time, energy providers must work that bit harder to guarantee that vulnerable customers are paying for their fuel through the lowest cost options and tariffs.
 
"Today's announcement devalues the word 'strategy'.  Half-baked measures such as these are not going to address the social emergency of fuel poverty.  That's why Help the Aged has joined forces with Friends of the Earth to seek a judicial review of the Government's policies to ensure they are held to account.  This failure cannot continue."