NEA and its subsidiary, Warm Zones Community Interest Company welcome the Government’s announcement today which promises additional funding for energy efficiency schemes, preferential energy tariffs and higher Cold Weather Payments - great news indeed for many of the 5.2 million low income households living in fuel poverty in the UK.

An extra £75 million for the Warm Front scheme and significant funding for area-based fuel poverty initiatives such as those delivered by Warm Zones are particularly welcomed.

Jenny Saunders, Chief Executive of NEA said, “NEA warmly welcomes the focus on long term energy efficiency. This should ensure year on year benefit from energy saving measures which will help cut everyone’s fuel bills, most importantly the fuel poor. The increased funding for Warm Front is excellent news, we have campaigned for this for some time and it is refreshing that Government now seems to be listening and has acted.”

Working at a community level is an excellent way to target those that are most vulnerable and Warm Zones have been very effective in linking energy efficiency with income maximisation programmes and other related services.

William Gillis, Managing Director of Warm Zones cic commented, “We particularly welcome the announcement of increased support for the kind of area-based fuel poverty initiatives, delivered by Warm Zones, announced today. This support will enable the company to work with the fuel suppliers to increase the number of zones and deliver the service to more low income and other vulnerable consumers. We are also keen to expand the services provided by the zones to include referrals to social tariffs and we welcome the Government’s desire to see Companies promote these more widely.”

“The increased income which results from the welfare benefit take up service provided by the Zones, together with the reduction in fuel bills which result from the packages of energy efficiency improvements, make a real impact on peoples lives. Practical improvements and increased income not only help to reduce fuel poverty, they also make real improvements to the health and welfare of the households that benefit” continued Gillis.

Increased funding for the Carbon Emissions Reduction Scheme (CERT) also features in the announcement with a requirement that this should be paid for by suppliers and not passed on to customers as is the case currently. NEA will be seeking assurances from the Regulator that this does happen.

There is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that Government meets its target to tackle fuel poverty and we look forward to other measures being announced very soon if energy prices are to remain high. Short term measures to increase the value of the Cold Weather Payment will have little impact unless the qualifying criteria are changed and it is crucial that mandatory social tariffs be introduced. NEA hopes that the results of the Ofgem probe expected later this month will go further to address the issue of high energy prices, stop companies discriminating against low income households and make the market work better for the fuel poor.

The announcement is timely coming the week before NEA’s national conference in Birmingham, sponsored by npower and addressed by Mike O’Brien MP, Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions, which will bring together leading players in the fuel poverty field to debate key actions around the theme of ‘Tackling Fuel Poverty: Leaving no stone unturned’.

It also follows the launch of a Fuel Poverty Charter criticising Government for failing to do enough to tackle fuel poverty and setting out the key actions that campaigning organisations would like to see taken.

NEA is available for comment and interview following the announcement please contact Richard Archer as above.

Email: david.bootle@nea.org.uk