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21 Jul 2000
The Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Bill today completed its final stages
in the House of Commons, and now goes on to Lords. It is expected to become law
this autumn. The Bill, piloted through the Commons by David Amess MP (Conservative,
Southend West) puts a legal duty on the Government to end "fuel poverty"
- the situation where people cannot afford to keep their homes warm in the winter
- in England and Wales within 15 years. The Bill eventually won the support of
all MPs despite earlier opposition from 2 Conservative MPs, Eric Forth and David
Maclean [1].
The Bill will require a major increase in insulation schemes
run by the Government and local authorities to raise building insulation and heating
system standards.
Around 5 million households in England alone currently
spend over 10% of their income to heat their homes to an acceptable level. Approximately
1 million homes spend 1 in every 5 to keep warm [2]. As a result, millions of
people go cold every winter . There are well established links between cold homes
and ill-health. Over half these "fuel poor" are elderly, and the impact
on health leads to dramatic increases in both hospital admissions for cold-related
illness (bronchitis, pneumonia, influenza), and dramatic increases in the death
rate. In the last winter for which figures are available (1998-99) 49,000 more
people died in the winter than in an equivalent period in the rest of the year
[3]. This increase far outstrips that seen in other European countries - even
colder countries such as Sweden and Norway.
Martyn Williams, Campaign
Organiser and Parliamentary Campaigner at FOE said:
"This is a huge step
towards ending fuel poverty. When it becomes law, as now looks likely, the Government
will be legally required to help millions of people keep warm. "Fuel poverty"
is an obscenity and disgrace. Today MPs of all parties have shown that they agree
and have now voted to end this disgraceful situation."
David Amess
MP said
"Having been lucky enough to get the chance to introduce a Bill
I am delighted I have been able to pilot such a crucial Bill through the Commons.
There is clearly a lot of work that now needs to be done to make sure people can
keep warm and well, but we can now argue about how to do this, not whether or
not to do this."
[1] English House Condition Survey 1996
[2] Figures from the Office for National Statistics
[3] Eric Forth
and David Maclean had opposed the Bill at its Second Reading (10.3.00), its Money
Clause (4.4.00) and had tabled around 60 amendments at the last minute before
its first scheduled Report Stage (9.6.00) which the Bills sponsors believed were
intended to prevent the Bill from becoming law by causing it to run out of time.
Contact details:
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Media team
