Excess winter deaths reach record figures

NEA Chief Executive Adam Scorer commented: ‘On top of these preventable deaths we know that many millions more people will have suffered the preventable health impacts of living in a cold and damp home, as well as resorting to harmful coping strategies.’ 

Evidence provided by frontline workers to NEA has revealed several unsafe fuel poverty coping strategies being used to survive winter, including the regular use of older, dangerous or un-serviced heating appliances. 

Meanwhile, the Committee on Fuel Poverty’s Third Annual Report finds that government has ignored research and advice on tackling fuel poverty, resulting in a growth in the number of fuel poor households to 2.55mn. 

Commenting, the Energy Utilities Alliance (EUA) says that it has long been calling for better targeted funding for those who are most at risk from fuel poverty. Its report: Fuel Poverty: Ending the vicious cycle of vulnerability, revealed that every year, cold homes kill over four times as many people as road and rail accidents.

EUA CEO Mike Foster said: ‘The Committee on Fuel Poverty report makes a number of recommendations of which we endorse, such as government-funded household energy efficiency schemes and enforcement of health, wellbeing and safety-related regulations in the privately rented sector.’