Energy companies must do more to help vulnerable groups with their fuel bills
March 27th 2008
Dr Alan Whitehead, MP for Southampton Test has again pressed the Prime Minister on the issue of fuel poverty and received a guarantee from Gordon Brown that the government will do its best for people suffering, or at risk, from fuel poverty.
Earlier this month, Dr Whitehead welcomed the announcement in the Budget of measures to tackle fuel poverty – an issue he has been campaigning on in Parliament for some time.
Dr Whitehead further raised the need for energy companies to assist vulnerable customers at Prime Minister’s Question Time on Wednesday 26th March, as follows:
Q3. [196465] Dr. Alan Whitehead (Southampton, Test) (Lab): Does the Prime Minister think that energy companies should do more to help vulnerable groups deal with the cost of their fuel? Does he think that they should all introduce standard social tariffs to assist such people and if they do not is he prepared to legislate?
The Prime Minister: This is exactly the area where we are working with the energy companies at the moment. We are talking to them, and we have said that they need to deliver a package of social assistance to vulnerable households that will increase their spending from £56 million a year to £150 million a year. We want the energy companies that have benefited from the windfall as a result of the European licence trading in relation to climate change to put an extra £100 million a year into helping the very households that my hon. Friend is talking about. That is on top of the winter allowance, which we have just increased, and on top of the help with insulation that we are giving. I understand how difficult it is for people at the moment. Oil, gas and coal prices have risen by between 60 and 80 per cent. around the world. That is why, with the winter allowance and the extra £100 million that the energy companies will be expected to put in, we will do our best by those people who face, or are threatened by, fuel poverty in this country.
Speaking after the exchange Dr Whitehead said:
“I was delighted with the Prime Minister’s response which shows that he and the government are committed to helping vulnerable customers cope with the rising costs of fuel. The current estimate is that about 40,000 more people will fall into fuel poverty for each 1% increase in the price of fuel. Clearly more action is needed to ensure that no-one is left in the situation of not being able to afford to heat their homes."
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