Lib Dems ask Council and Government to tackle Fuel Poverty (York Liberal Democrats)

York Liberal Democrats <info@yorklibdems.org.uk>

Lib Dems ask Council and Government to tackle Fuel Poverty

September 20, 2008 12:00 AM

The Liberal Democrats in York are proposing a motion to full council next Thursday, proposing plans to tackle fuel poverty for residents in York.

The Liberal Democrats - both locally and nationally - believe the Government's new proposals for tackling fuel poverty do not go far enough, and the motion therefore calls on the Government to extend these proposals with:

§ A national home insulation programme, as proposed by the Local Government Association, which would use £500m a year from energy companies to ensure that 500, 000 people are lifted out of fuel poverty as well as sustain locally generated employment

§ Social tariffs, to ensure that the 2.25 million people on pre-payment meters are not unfairly penalised by disproportionately high bills, costing the energy companies in the region of £275m a year.

§ A wide scale introduction of smart meters in people's homes to record consumption rates, allowing consumers to know where changes can be made in their energy use to reduce bills.

The Lib Dem-led Council is also doing its own part to relieve fuel poverty in York and to increase energy savings. The council has already installed smart metering - the displaying of energy consumption - in just over 20 council buildings, and the Liberal Democrats' motion proposes that the Council works with the Energy Saving Trust Advice Centre for York to promote smart metering in residents' homes to help people facing fuel poverty in the city, as well as investigate the inclusion of smart metering in council houses.

Almost a quarter of people in the UK are expected to be in fuel poverty by next year. Average household electricity bills are already expected to increase to more than £500 per year by 2010, and gas bills to around £900.

Liberal Democrat Councillor, and the Council's Energy Champion, Christian Vassie, is proposing the motion. He said: "Smart metering in our council buildings helps us to reduce energy bills and, having a smart meter in my own home, I can vouch for the savings that can be made. You quickly learn to plan your energy use better when you discover, for example, that computers and other electronic kit left switched on at the wall continue to consume electricity, even though they are supposedly switched off!

"Energy companies have profited from a £9 billion windfall from the EU emissions trading scheme. The whole intention of the EU directive was to encourage reductions in CO2 emissions, and it is only the government's reluctance to hold the energy companies to account that has delayed matters. This money must be used to help customers reduce their energy consumption and their bills, instead of allowing the energy companies to trouser the money. In this difficult economic climate anything else is unacceptable."