Fuel poverty affecting more Scottish households, December 13, 2012, BBC: “Sharp rises in fuel prices last year pushed more than 100,000 Scots into fuel poverty, according to a Scottish government survey. Energy bill rises of up to 18% saw the number of people spending more than 10% of their income on fuel reach 684,000 in October of last year. This was a rise from 658,000 in October 2010…”
Tag: Fuel poverty
Fuel Poverty in the UK
Fuel poverty figures show decrease, but are expected to rise again, By Hilary Osborne, May 17, 2012, The Guardian: “The number of UK households in fuel poverty fell in 2010, but rising energy bills and the reduction of funds for energy efficiency measures mean the fall is likely to be short lived, experts have warned. Figures from the Department of Energy and Climate Change showed that the number of households spending more than 10% of income on fuel to maintain an adequate temperature, the official definition of fuel poverty, fell by 750,000, or 11%, in 2010 to a total of 4.75 million. Despite the fall, one in five households across the UK remained in fuel poverty, and consumer groups pointed out that a £150 increase in average bills since the period the figures cover mean many more people may have been pushed back into difficulties…”
Fuel Poverty – England
- Fuel poverty to rise to 8.5m, report warns, By Damian Kahya, March 15, 2012, BBC News: “Fuel poverty in England is likely to worsen, despite measures to try to eradicate it, a government-commissioned report has warned. Some 7.8 million people could not afford their energy bills in 2009, its author, Prof John Hills said. This is due to rise to 8.5 million by 2016. Campaigners have called for more money to be invested in cutting bills. The government has said it is committed to tackling the problem which has been linked to 2,700 deaths a year…”
- Nine million will live in ‘fuel poverty’ in the next four years, By Simon Read, March 16, 2012, The Independent: “Almost nine million people will live in fuel poverty in the next four years despite ministerial pledges to eradicate it by 2016, a Government-commissioned report has warned. The author of the report, Professor John Hills, warned that official plans to fight fuel poverty are failing. ‘The Government should set out a renewed and ambitious strategy for tackling fuel poverty,’ he said. The existing definition of a household in fuel poverty is one which spends more than 10 per cent of its income on energy. But Professor Hills, director of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics, says the definition is misleading as it excludes some people whose incomes are so low they are reduced to spending only minuscule amounts of money on fuel. Proportionally they are not considered in fuel poverty…”