Challenging the Welsh Government this week over what action it is taking to help people in fuel poverty in North Wales, Mark Isherwood AM made refreshed calls for a new Fuel Poverty Strategy in Wales.
Mr Isherwood, who Chaired the Cross Party Fuel Poverty Group, has been spearheading calls for a revised strategy and raised the matter again in the Assembly Chamber yesterday.
He said:
“It takes me back a decade to when we were convincing your previous colleagues in Welsh Government that a Fuel Poverty Strategy includes energy efficiency, but is a social justice issue.
“Age Cymru have said that many of the mechanisms and measures contained within the Welsh Government’s 2010 Fuel Poverty Strategy are out of date and no longer applicable, saying that the time is right for the Welsh Government to refresh its Fuel Poverty Strategy.
“At both the Fuel Poverty Awareness Day Cross-Border North Wales Conference and the Wales Annual Fuel Poverty Conference in February, we heard that, whilst the Welsh Government’s investment in energy efficiency schemes through its Warm Homes programme is commendable, we need a step change in ambition and the scale of resources earmarked.
“How, therefore, will the Welsh Government engage with the Wales Fuel Poverty Coalition, most of whose members you already work with in different contexts, over their statement that we drastically need a new Fuel Poverty Strategy in Wales?”
In her response Leader of the House, Jane Hutt, who was standing in for the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, repeatedly referred instead to the Warm Homes scheme.
She said: “We know that the most effective way in which we can tackle fuel poverty in the long term is to improve the energy efficiency of homes, and we’re doing this effectively through Welsh Government Warm Homes.”
Mr Isherwood added: “I was grateful to Age Cymru for subsequently thanking me for referencing their Fuel Poverty policy position. We battled hard to get Welsh Government under the previous First Minister to recognise the need for a Fuel Poverty Strategy that was about more than just energy efficiency measures, important those these are, but we’ve gone full circle with this Welsh Government. There is now no realistic prospect of achieving the 2018 target to eradicate fuel poverty in Wales.
“The Fuel Poverty Charter, launched in 2009, with the support of a wide range of bodies and organisations across Wales, called for a detailed action plan setting out how and when fuel poverty will be eradicated in Wales, and a co-ordinated and united approach across the statutory sector that involves partners from the private, voluntary and community sectors in Wales.
“The 291,000 Welsh households now living in fuel poverty demand and deserve nothing less.”