Fuel Poverty on the rise this winter

Concerns are growing that more and more people are going to be pushed into fuel poverty this winter. This was likely to have happened because of the rising cost of fuel but has been accelerated by the recession and in particular the sudden and increasing rise in unemployment. Some sources say this will affect hundreds of thousands more households.

Fuel poverty is defined as households who spend more than 10% of their income on energy. The Fuel Poverty Advisory Group, which advises the Government, says around 4 million homes in England are already in fuel poverty, which means this figure would move towards 5 million by the end of the winter.

Retro-fitting a HeatingSave House and Home system to your existing central heating system could save 20% off heating bills for the average householder, with a typical payback of less than three years. The Government say they have spent £20bn on cutting fuel poverty since 2000. However, apart from better insulating homes, none of this has gone on making existing central heating systems more efficient. Future energy prices are only going to go one way — upwards — and making more efficient what we already have would be a good start in cutting fuel bills. By way of illustration, we estimate that if just half the houses in the UK using traditional gas or oil fired central heating systems were to install a system like HeatingSave this autumn it would save £1.3 billion each winter. How"s that for a saving Mr Brown?