4,500 HOMES IN EVERY LONDON BOROUGH ARE 'FUEL POOR'

12.01.00am GMT Tue 27th Jan 2004

Hughes urges neighbours to check on vulnerable people during the cold snap

Liberal Democrat Mayoral candidate Simon Hughes MP has urged Londoners to check on elderly and vulnerable neighbours during the predicted cold snap as he today revealed new figures that show there are 148,000 homes in London that are 'fuel poor'.

With the first cold blasts of 2004 hitting London, the figures revealed in a Parliamentary Answer to Mr Hughes show that around 4,484 homes in every London Borough spend more than 10% of the income on fuel, despite the capital being in the warmest and wealthiest area of the UK.

Simon Hughes MP said:-

"Community spirit could save lives over the coming days. With this arctic spell of weather hitting the Capital I urge people to pop round to their neighbours to make sure that they are keeping warm.

"Thousands of the most vulnerable in our society have been ignored, overlooked and are set to either freeze in this cold snap or go into debt to keep their homes warm.

"The poor are being taxed for being poor. As Mayor I would put pressure on the EU Commission to reduce VAT from 17% to 5% for all those people who insulate their homes themselves. This would bring it into line with the VAT paid by those people who can afford tradesmen to do the work.

"The current Mayor must work with Ministers to ensure that all fuel poor households in London are identified and insulation is put in. By giving everybody access to the best energy-insulating materials, fuel poverty could be reduced, providing better living conditions and a better quality of life to many people living in London."

ENDS

Notes to editors

30 Oct 2003 : Column 370W

Fuel Poverty

Simon Hughes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many fuel poverty households there are in each London authority area; and what her estimate is of the number of children living in fuel poverty households. [135164]

Mr. Timms: I have been asked to reply.

The available information from the English House Condition Survey indicates that in 2001, there were 148,000 fuel poor households in London. This is based on fuel poverty defined as occurring when a household needs to spend more than 10 per cent. of its income (including housing benefit and income support for mortgage interest) on all fuels in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime.

More detailed breakdowns for the London area are not available as the sample size for the survey is not large enough to enable reliable detailed regional estimates of fuel poverty to be produced.

In England in 2001 there were 1.7 million households in fuel poverty. Of these, 210,000 contained children.

These figures are available at: www.dti.gov.uk/energy/consumers/fuelpoverty/index.shtml