Archived press release

Charities appeal fuel poverty judgment

13 November 2008

Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged have lodged an appeal today against last month's High Court ruling that the Government has not broken the law over its failure to tackle fuel poverty.

The High Court gave Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged permission to appeal because the case raised difficult and novel legal questions. The organisations have asked the Court of Appeal to reconsider the issues and order that the Government release previously secret fuel poverty documents.
Friends of the Earth's executive director, Andy Atkins, said:

"We believe the Government has acted unlawfully by failing in its legal commitment to end the suffering of fuel poverty. The Government must introduce a massive programme to cut energy waste, slash fuel bills and ensure that people heat their homes and not the planet."

Mervyn Kohler, Special Adviser for Help the Aged, said:

"The intention of Parliament to end fuel poverty was very clear in legislation - it must happen. The Government has to come up with a fresh fuel poverty strategy immediately to end the suffering of millions of vulnerable people. Low income households need crisis payments simply to get through the coming winter, but in the longer term, the energy efficiency of our homes must be improved."

Although the Government is legally bound to do all that is reasonably possible to eradicate fuel poverty for vulnerable households by 2010 and for all households by 2016, five million households in the United Kingdom will struggle to heat and power their homes this winter. The number of households in fuel poverty has now reached the highest level in ten years.
Help the Aged and Friends of the Earth and are calling on the Government to develop a far more effective and comprehensive programme of domestic energy efficiency to simultaneously end suffering from fuel poverty and tackle climate change.

Notes:

1. Help the Aged and Friends of the Earth maintain that the Government has acted unlawfully with regard to fuel poverty. The original court case highlighted:

• Government failure to provide a comprehensive and costed plan of action for meeting its targets;
• Government failure to set a minimum standard of energy efficiency to be a[applied to affected households;
• Repeated criticism of the Government from the independent Fuel Poverty Advisory Group;
• That the Government itself has admitted that targets to reduce and eventually eliminate fuel poverty will be missed.

2. Copies of the Grounds of Appeal are available on request and will be posted on the Friends of the Earth website.

3. Photographs from the joint Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged picture opportunity outside the High Court, (6 October 2008), are available for download at http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/images/fuel_poverty/

If you're a journalist looking for press information please contact the Friends of the Earth media team on 020 7566 1649.

Published by Friends of the Earth Trust