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…”
Tag: Utilities
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…”
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program
President Obama’s budget proposal targets home heating bill program, By Larry Bivins, February 20, 2012, Appleton Post-Crescent: “Once again advocates for the poor will have to appeal to Congress for an increase in funding for a program that helped more than 230,000 Wisconsinites last year pay their home heating bills. That’s because President Barack Obama has again proposed cuts to the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. The president wants to spend $3 billion on the program in fiscal year 2013, which begins Oct. 1. While that represents an increase over the $2.6 billion he requested in his budget plan for the current fiscal year, it is less than the nearly $3.5 billion Congress appropriated and far short of the full authorization amount of $5.1 billion Congress approved in 2009 and in 2010…”