The Government’s Fuel Poverty Advisory Group (FPAG) today warned that fuel poverty levels will soar without urgent and decisive Government action.
In a highly critical report, FPAG estimate that due to recent rises in energy bills and poor Government policies there will be 300,000 more homes in fuel poverty by Christmas. In a major boost to the Energy Bill Revolution campaign they also strongly support the idea to recycle carbon tax revenue to insulate homes to drive down energy bills.
FPAG find that the average annual energy bill has risen around 7 per cent this winter, to £1,247 for direct debit customers and £1,336 for cash and cheque customers. They conclude that “Government action to date is completely inadequate to tackle the scale of the problem” and point to the risk that without a massively ramped up programme of insulation, funded by carbon taxes, 9 million households could be in fuel poverty by 2016.
Ed Matthew, Director of the Energy Bill Revolution said:
“This is a wake up call for the Government. Their own expert advisors on fuel poverty are saying their polices are failing and radical action is needed to tackle the growing crisis. We hugely welcome their strong support for the solution advocated by the Energy Bill Revolution. Recycling carbon tax to make fuel poor homes super-insulated is by far the most effective way to drive down energy bills. There is enough carbon revenue flowing into Treasury coffers to end the scandal of fuel poverty once and for all.”
Back