Fuel poverty plan 'under-prepared'

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A report by Consumer Focus said the Government needed to spend £3 billion a year, for seven years, if it is to meet its target of ending fuel poverty by 2016.

And it said that to improve the energy supply network and tackle climate change in the next 10 to 15 years, there needs to be a total investment of £200 billion.

"The Government's energy efficiency plans are too underfunded, untargeted and under-prepared to tackle the fuel poverty crisis affecting more than five million vulnerable pensioners, families and disabled people across the UK," it said.

If the consumer bears the brunt of funding this through an increase in energy bills, it could result in 1.7 million more households being plunged into fuel poverty, the report warned.

Jonathan Stearn, energy expert for Consumer Focus, said: "The Government's current energy efficiency schemes are simply not up to the task of tackling fuel poverty and cutting carbon emissions.

"Unless the Government invests in a radical new energy efficiency scheme its promise to end fuel poverty will prove to be empty.

"Consumer Focus has concerns that the Government's main energy efficiency scheme - CERT (Carbon Emissions Reduction Target) - is ineffective in targeting fuel poor households and hard to treat homes, and has no targets on the energy efficiency levels it must achieve.

"This is also a huge problem within the Government's forthcoming energy saving programmes, the Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP) and Heat and Energy Saving Strategy (HES)".

A new energy efficiency programme proposed by Consumer Focus would lift over 80% of fuel poor households out of fuel poverty. They went on to say that they would reduce the energy bills of those in fuel poverty by 52%.