Well over 10,000 local people live in fuel poverty, meaning more than one-tenth of their income is spent on keeping their home warm. This is according to figures just released to Parliament.
In answer to a question from Liberal Democrat MP for North Devon Nick Harvey, the energy and climate change minister David Kidney MP revealed that 3,700 people in the Plymouth Devonport constituency and 7,100 people in the Plymouth Sutton seat are defined as fuel poor. A further 3,100 people in South West Devon, which includes Plympton and Plymstock, are also fuel poor.
Commenting, Liberal Democrat prospective parliamentary candidate for Plymouth Moor View, Stuart Bonar, said: “We need to see action to help people keep their homes warm. We need to see a lot more ambition from the Government on things like insulating homes.
“In this day and age, after years of Labour government, it is a great shame that thousands of Plymouth residents continue to struggle to pay their heating bills. Fuel poverty should be a thing of the past.”
(from a press release)
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What about the people who don’t have any money to keep their home warm?
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Lib Dems tried to get a new law passed last year that would, amongst other things, have introduced new social tariffs – what this means is that poorer households and certainly fuel poor ones would pay lower charges, to make warming their homes more affordable.
The proposed new law would also have stopped the scandal of pre-pay meters, often used by poorer people, paying more for their heating than everyone else.
Sadly, there was not enough support from Labour or the Tories to get the bill passed.
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