Fuel poverty committee warns of slow progress

BEIS figures show just 11 per cent of fuel poor homes will be Band C or above by 2019, committee claims

The Committee on Fuel Poverty has warned of the slow progress being made in upgrading fuel poor homes.

In the committee’s second annual report, which was published today (17 October), it said progress in upgrading as many fuel poor homes to Band C or above by 2030 is slow and warned the government’s own projections show 11 per cent of such homes will be at this level by 2019.

But the committee said it was “very pleased” to see the Conservative’s general election manifesto commitment earlier this year to upgrade all fuel poor homes to Band C by 2030, but called on the government to commit to longer term and “appropriate levels” of funding to achieve this.

The report also questions whether enough funding is in place to upgrade the energy efficiency of fuel poor homes.

Using the 2017 BEIS fuel poverty statistics, it estimates £15.4 billion will be needed after March 2019 to install the necessary measures.

But it claims only £1 billion could be available up to when the Energy Company Obligation ends in September 2022.

“To provide confidence for energy efficiency manufacturing and installation companies to invest and to avoid a heavy back-loading of delivery, early action is need by government to ensure the availability of the necessary funds,” the report states.

The report also highlights figures published by BEIS earlier this year, which show the number of households in fuel poverty has increased from 2.38 million in 2014 to 2.5 million in 2015.

Although, it also notes the average fuel poverty gap, which is the average additional amount fuel poor households need to spend to meet their fuel needs, has fallen over the same time period from £371 to £353.

The report also recognises the progress being made towards upgrading as many fuel poor homes as possible to Band E by 2020 and Band D by 2025.

According to the report, BEIS projections show 93 per cent of fuel poor homes will be in Band E or better by 2019.

“Whilst this progress is encouraging, it is important to note that this means there will still be around 175,000 fuel poor households living in Band F and G properties,” the report states.

“Many will be suffering from the worst extremes of fuel poverty and have annual fuel needs well in excess of £1,000 per year above the national median spend.”

A spokesman for Energy UK said: “We welcome today’s report from the Committee on Fuel Poverty and their focus on energy efficiency, and agree that schemes such as the Warm Home Discount and Winter Fuel Payment should be better targeted to help those who need it most. 

“Making our homes energy efficient would be the most effective way of reducing fuel poverty & bills for customers over the long term – which is why we are calling for government to fund energy efficiency as a national infrastructure priority.”