In early 2013, ACE Research and the Energy Bill Revolution published a fact-file on families and fuel poverty. This briefing serves to update last year’s headline figures for the number of households, people, families, and children in fuel poverty. It does so for the UK, as well as for the devolved nations where appropriate. This report includes information which made national news on 30th January 2014 regarding the increase in children in fuel poverty, and polling information which found that families have cut spending on school uniforms and food to pay for heating bills.Read more
Cold kills more in temperate Britain than freezing Sweden. Over 20,000 in the UK each winter, 23% more than Sweden as a proportion of all deaths. The share of people who cannot afford to heat their homes is four times higher in Britain than the Scandinavian nation, even though gas there is twice as expensive and winter temperatures regularly plunge as low as -30 degrees centigrade.Read more
In its response to the Fifth Report of the Energy and Climate Change Committee, the Government claimed that spending on fuel poverty would be higher in 2014/15 than in 2009/10. Research by the Energy Bill Revolution shows that this claim is not true. Overall spending on fuel poverty policies in 2014/15 will be more than 20% below the level of 2009/10, and almost 25% below the 2010/11 peak. Only a small portion of that spend is focused on long term solutions to fuel poverty.Read more
This video is from our friends at the Centre for Sustainable Energy. It looks at a few of the issues that the millions of families in fuel poverty will face this winter. Crucially it points out that the wide range of health problems that are made worse by living in a cold home. The government should do more.
The three contributing factors to cold homes are low incomes, fuel prices and energy efficiency. Different fuel prices vary but gas, the main source of heating in the UK, is actually cheaper here than in most countries. Yet we have high fuel bills. Why is this? Because our homes are so inefficient. They lose heat very quickly so take up more and more fuel to stay warm. If the government was to be ambitious and help everyone to thoroughly insulate and make their home's energy efficient then we could end the scourge of cold homes for ever. We could insulate 5-600,000 homes a year and bring 9 out of 10 families out of fuel poverty. If you agree with this idea, then please sign our petition on the homepage of this websiteRead more