Don't let energy companies cut heating help
27th January 2011
Alan Whitehead has pressed the Government to reverse its decision to allow energy companies to substantially reduce the help they offer to make our homes more energy efficient.
The Tory Government is cancelling Labour’s Warm Front programme and CERT levy on energy companies, which have helped thousands of people at risk of fuel poverty in Southampton and the south to get new boilers, better insulation, as well as access other help to reduce their energy bills.
The Government has always defended its decision to cancel Warm Front and CERT on the basis that new programmes are in the pipeline. But today Dr Whitehead pressed Chris Huhne to admit that the amount energy companies will be required to spend on measures to improve home energy efficiency in the future will be less than 1/3 of what it is at present.
The current total budget for help with affordable warmth is £370 million for the Warm Front Scheme, and £600 million for CERT- a total of £970 million. However the Government’s proposed replacement scheme- the Energy Companies Obligation- will in total only require energy companies to fund £325 million of improvements. This is a cut of 66%.
Yesterday Dr Whitehead asked Chris Huhne:
“Does the Secretary of State accept that the ECO’s affordable warmth element, which comes to £325 million, is substantially less than the Warm Front commitment of £370 million and the CERT commitment of £600 million? Does he accept that that is a substantial reduction in affordable warmth for those on lower incomes? Even now, will he review the split in costs in relation to affordable warmth and those who can pay, or look for other methods of dealing with the issue?”
Speaking after the debate, Dr Whitehead said:
“Abolishing these levies may make life easier for big energy companies, but it will make it much harder for families who are already struggling to heat their homes this winter. Just a quarter of the new ECO programme is going to provide affordable warmth for less well off families. We’re now increasingly seeing that the Government’s impressive rhetoric on energy bills and green measures just are not matched by the- in all honesty- pretty feeble policy reality.”
More information
Below are statistics from EAGA showing the number of people in Southampton Test helped with heating measures via the Warm Front programme from 2000-2008.
1 June 2000 to 29 Mar 2008 |
|
Particularly vulnerable households and numbers assisted |
|
Households with children: |
|
Households in receipt of Disability Living Allowance |
504 |
Households who are over 60 |
1,094 |
Measures |
Work carried out |
Number of households assisted |
2,194 |
Households that have received a heating measure |
855 |
Households that have received an insulation measure |
1,400 |
Total Value of Work |
£2,188,785.61 |
Households who have had a Benefit Entitlement Check (BEC) since June 2003 |
|
Number of completed BECs |
320 |
Number of households found to be eligible for a Warm Front qualifying benefit |
121 |
Average weekly increase per Warm Front client |
£25.67 |
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