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New fuel poverty proposals full of holes |
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28 Jul 2014, 5:06 PM
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The government has been slammed by campaigners over plans announced today to target fuel poverty. The Department of Energy and Climate Change says it wants to replace the current, legally binding, target to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016.
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The previous aspiration will be replaced with a new target to ensure ‘as many fuel poor homes as is reasonably practicable’ are retrofitted to reach a minimum energy-efficiency standard of ‘C’ by 2030. Energy efficiency is measured on an A to G scale, whereby A-rated homes are the most efficient.
Two interim targets have also been set, of ensuring as many fuel poor homes as ‘reasonably practicable’ will meet at least an ‘E’ grade on the energy-efficiency ranking system by 2020, and should make a ‘D’ grade by 2025.
However,the proposals, which are out for consultation until 7 October, have been strongly criticised by fuel poverty campaigners.
Jenny Saunders, chief executive of fuel poverty charity National Energy Action, said: ‘This could leave the poorest households continuing to ration their heating over the next 10 years and spending far more of their limited budgets on energy than is necessary.’
Ed Matthew, director of the Energy Bill Revolution, an alliance of fuel poverty campaigners, said: ‘This strategy is so full of holes they will never plug the UK’s fuel poor homes.’
And Jenny Holland, head of the Association for the Conservation of Energy’s parliamentary team, said: ‘We are very worried to read that the government are only committing themselves to these targets “as far as reasonably practicable”. This is the get-out they used to wriggle out of their original legal duty to eradicate fuel poverty by 2016.
‘Effectively it means that they only have to make a case that government finances are tight to be able to wriggle out of their new target too.’
She added: ‘We will be urging the government to go further, sooner and to make it clear that tackling the cold, leaky homes of our most vulnerable households is a top priority both now and in the future.’
The consultation also reiterated and confirmed some previously announced government decisions, confirming that government will adopt a new definition of fuel poverty, jettisoning the old definition that anyone who spent 10%of their income on energy was in fuel poverty.
It also reinforces previously announced changes to the energy company obligation – the main source of subsidy for energy-efficiency work available to social landlords, announced last December.
And the government confirmed it will set minimum energy-efficiency standards for private rented homes from 2018, meaning private landlords will not be able to let properties with the worst ratings of F and G. However, the standard will only apply if the improvements a property needs can be financed using the energy company obligation or green deal, without any upfront cost to the landlord.
The strategy also proposes greater support for programmes that see family doctors prescribe insulation and other energy-efficiency measures, a type of project that a number of social landlords, such as Gentoo, have been piloting.
Credits:: Jess McCabe - Inside Housing
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