Help to beat fuel poverty must be properly targeted

Published on Friday 21 November 2008 18:07

I KEEP hearing that the media is to blame for the mess we're in. I'm also told regularly that we're not reporting enough good news. I think there's some truth in both points. If we're to identify the reasons behind the mayhem in financial markets and the economy's inexorable slide into recession, however, I don't think media coverage will be at the top of the list. For that we can thank regulators, bankers, traders, lenders and governments, among others.

As for positive news, it is thin on the ground, but perhaps we should do more with what there is. A good place to start is growing evidence of the authorities belatedly taking the issue of fuel poverty more seriously. The Scottish Government is overhauling the assistance it gives to those living in fuel poverty and boosting funding levels significantly. A new Energy Assistance programme, costing 56 million a year, is to replace the existing Central Heating and Warm Deal schemes, while the government is also looking into the feasibility of bulk-buying fuel on behalf of hard-up customers.

The initiatives were welcomed enthusiastically by fuel poverty campaigners, not the typical response elicited by government measures. But, as Consumer Focus pointed out, "the big challenge now is to ensure that everyone who this help is aimed at can benefit from it". And that is a different beast altogether.

Which brings me to a meeting this week with the Energy Retail Association, the group representing the UK's energy suppliers. The messages that came out regarding issues such as prepayment meters – which mean thousands of people on low incomes are excluded from the best deals available – were mixed. Similarly, that prices are dictated not by oil but by wholesale gas prices and will come down "when the environment is right" is not new, though the public perception remains that suppliers, who act in uncanny unison, are quicker to hike rates than they are to reduce them. But the ERA is right on some things, namely connecting the many sources of advice and assistance with the people that need help the most. The focus on providing guidance rather than on the sources of the difficulties people face is convenient for suppliers, but there is an awareness gap that needs breaching.

The ERA's own Home Heat Helpline (0800 33 66 99), launched three years ago to help tackle fuel poverty, has enabled more than a third of the 80,000 people who have called it to save money. Citizens Advice, Help the Aged, Age Concern, local authorities and the energy companies themselves, among others, remain underused sources of advice. This is because they are not promoted adequately; because people are too proud to ask for help; or in the case of suppliers, because of inaccessibility and distrust. But too little is being done to take the help available to those that need it.

THE fall in the inflation rate that dictates state pension payments and various other benefits (the Retail Prices Index or RPI) to 4.2 per cent last month was well timed. Fortunately, those payments are based on the September reading of RPI, which was the highest for the year at 5 per cent.

It's little comfort for pensioners otherwise struggling to cope with high fuel bills and meagre pensions, but over the year it will make a welcome difference. Factor in lower food prices and energy bill cuts that should materialise in the first months of next year – albeit too late for many – and the great cloud hovering over us may have a silver lining yet.

ANOTHER blast of positive vibes – if you live in the Shetland islands. Research out today from Bank of Scotland reveals that the islands offer the best quality of life in Scotland, due primarily to low house prices, low unemployment and good education and health standards.