13 March 2012: The London Assembly Health and Public Services Committee have published their conclusions from a lengthy study looking at the incidence and causes of fuel poverty in the capital. The report warns that “despite efforts by the government, the Mayor and a range of targeted initiatives and incentives, the number of households affected by fuel poverty in London is continuing to rise.”
The report ‘In from the cold’ makes a series of recommendations that the Committee state could help improve the situation for the “nearly one in five London households who struggle to heat their homes and pay their energy bills.”
The Committee state that unless action is taken to tackle the problem, long-term energy price rises will continue to push more people into fuel poverty: the Greater London Authority’s (GLA) own projections show a worst case scenario that almost a quarter of households will be in fuel poverty by next year.
View the press announcement of the report here. The report can be viewed here and a new fuel poverty mapping tool using open public data to help delivery organisations identify areas in London most likely to contain households at risk of fuel poverty and offer them targeted support can be downloaded from the London datastore here. Written evidence to the committee can be downloaded here.