300,000 more homes ‘facing fuel poverty’

Some 300,000 more homes are likely to have been pushed into “fuel poverty” by Christmas amid soaring energy prices, an advisory body warned today.

The Fuel Poverty Advisory Group (FPAG) urged David Cameron to take stronger action to ensure there is a more widespread and ambitious effort to tackle “spiralling” fuel poverty levels.

It said the latest round of energy price rises had increased the average annual bill by seven per cent, taking it to £1,247 for direct debit customers and £1,336 for cash and cheque customers.

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Estimates have already shown that over nine million households could be living in fuel poverty by 2016, the FPAG said.

Families are considered to be in fuel poverty when they have to spend more than 10 per cent of their incomes on keeping their homes warm.

Nearly half of the UK’s fuel-poor households are pensioners, while a third contain people with some sort of disability or illness and a fifth contain a child aged five or under.

FPAG chairman Derek Lickorish said: “With a cold winter, welfare reforms cutting incomes, and all at a time of austerity measures and other rising household costs, the plight of the fuel poor has never been more serious.”

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A spokesman for the Environment Department said: “We have already announced our intention to launch a new fuel poverty strategy next year to make sure we are targeting help at those who need it most.”

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