NEWS IN BRIE F
Fuel Poverty: the
shocking reality facing
six million homes
by Charlie Williams
Accusations of trickery and dishonesty
have been levelled at the Government
after the announcement that 800,000
people were no longer “fuel-poor”.
At least 31,000 excess deaths were
recorded during the winter of 2012-13
– around 10,000 are believed to be the
result of cold homes, according to the
Office for National Statistics.
And following rises in energy bills, the
figures for 1213-14 are not expected to be
much better.
But a new way of calculating “fuel
poverty” contained in the new Energy Bill
will reduce the number of households
affected from 3.2 million to 2.4 million
overnight.
“The Government is shifting the
goalposts on fuel poverty so that official
statistics record far fewer households
as fuel-poor,” said the chair of the
Environmental Audit Committee, Joan
Walley MP.
The exact definition of “fuel poverty” is
disputed as is the precise number of those
affected by the inability to adequately
heat their homes.
A recent BBC News bulletin estimated
Fireside’s friendly glow… but millions trapped in fuel poverty have to choose between heating and eating
that six million families were living in
“fuel poverty.” Considering a family to
be comprised of – at the very least – two
parents and a child, it follows that at least
18 million people are affected.
“The figures were quite a lot worse than
we were expecting,” said Clare Welton of
the Fuel Poverty Action group.
Number 10 has been accused
repeatedly of failing to curb the energy
companies. Jonathan Reynolds, Labour’s
shadow Energy and Climate Change
minister, says David Cameron is putting
“the interests of energy companies before
ordinary people”.
Ofgem, the regulator for the gas and
electricity markets in Great Britain, has
promised to change the rules to ensure
that the problems of the fuel poor were
better understood, and energy companies
delivered more effective support to
poorer customers.
Unholy battle over charter for Press freedom
by A. Daniele Pallotta
The latest blast in the phoney war over
Press regulation shows that the Leveson
Inquiry report hasn’t gone away – it’s
crouching like a beast of prey at bay in
the long grass.
The recent full page in The Guardian,
signed by hundreds of the Hacked Off
great and the good, calling for action on a
Royal Charter amounted to a two fingersup salute to Fleet Street who’ve been
crying wolf over Press freedom.
Their new Independent Press
Standards Organisation, say newspapers,
will do the job. But many regard IPSO as
an oxymoronic joke doing the rounds in
the Last Chance Saloon.
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