by Mathew Beech
More than £1 billion has been cut from the budget to support households in fuel poverty since 2009, according to a report commissioned by the Association for the Conservation of Energy (Ace).
The report revealed that the money available from government to tackle fuel poverty and help bring down energy bills fell by 31 per cent between the 2009 and 2013 budgets, from £3.9 billion to £2.7 billion.
In particular, it highlighted that the budget for energy efficiency measures in England had fallen by 44 per cent. The number of energy efficiency measures being installed in fuel-poor homes is expected to fall from 150,000 in 2009 to 100,000 in 2013.
Jenny Holland, head of the parliamentary team at Ace, said: “Instead of tackling the blight of fuel poverty, the government has spent far too long twiddling its thumbs: two-and-a-half years reviewing how fuel poverty is defined while at the same time drastically eroding budgets to tackle the problem.”
Holland called for the government to use funds raised by carbon emissions taxes, an estimated £63 billion between 2012 and 2027, to help fuel-poor households become more energy efficient.
This comes as an Energy Saving Trust (EST) survey revealed that more than one-fifth of people were keen to improve the insulation of their homes.
Stephen Passmore, a housing expert at EST, said: “It’s clear that more and more people are taking insulation seriously.”
This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 30th November 2012.
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