North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has called on the Cabinet Secretary for the Environment and Rural Affairs to respond to concerns that a future Welsh Government demand-led fuel poverty scheme could deny help to many households in fuel poverty that are currently eligible for help, and reiterated calls for a revised Fuel Poverty Strategy for Wales.
Questioning the Secretary, Lesley Griffiths AM, in the Assembly Chamber yesterday, Mr Isherwood said the Fuel Poverty Coalition Cymru is concerned about the eligibility criteria proposed for a future fuel poverty scheme and referred to Age Cymru’s statement that, “many of the mechanisms and measures contained within the 2010 Fuel Poverty Strategy are out of date or no longer applicable” and that “the time is right for the Welsh Government to refresh its Fuel Poverty Strategy, with a clear programme and time scales, credible evidence base, and new fuel poverty target rooted in delivery rather than being a hostage to energy price movements”.
Speaking in the Chamber, he said
“You referred to the consultation on a future demand-led fuel poverty scheme, but the Fuel Poverty Coalition Cymru has expressed concern that, by introducing age requirements in the eligibility criteria proposed, this will deny help to many households in fuel poverty that are currently eligible. How will you, therefore, respond specifically to the Age Cymru statement that the 2010 revised fuel poverty strategy is now out of date, and that the Welsh Government needs to deliver for Wales a new revised fuel poverty strategy, reflecting not just energy efficiency, important though that is, but all the wider social justice issues linked to this important matter?”
The Environment Secretary said that she “is looking at the proposals that came from the Age Cymru statement on fuel poverty in the development of our wider fuel poverty policy going forward.”
Mr Isherwood added: “As Age Cymru’s Public Policy Statement on Fuel Poverty stated: “Fuel poverty is a significant problem for many older people in Wales, the group most likely to suffer from this” and “a significant cause of excess winter deaths”, where 90% of 16,000 excess winter deaths in Wales over the past decade involved people aged 65 or over, with the highest rate amongst those over 85, who constituted nearly 50 per cent of the total.
“Welsh Government targets to eradicate fuel poverty amongst all vulnerable households by 2010 and social housing by 2012 were missed, there is no realistic prospect of achieving the 2018 target of eradicating fuel poverty in Wales – a refreshed Fuel Poverty Strategy is therefore essential if we are ever going to tackle this problem .”