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4 Nov 2008 : Column 444W—continued

Energy: Meters

Mr. Hoyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of (a) the number of people paying energy bills through prepayment meters and (b) the average annual cost of paying energy bills by (i) prepayment meters and (ii) direct debit. [225635]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The information requested is published quarterly in Quarterly Energy Prices, available online at:

http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/energy/statistics/publications/prices/index.html

The latest edition from September 2008 shows that as at the end of June 2008, there were approximately 3.9 million electricity prepayment customers and 2.4 million gas prepayment customers.

This publication also holds provisional 2008 yearly bills, based on standard consumption figures of 3,300 kWh for electricity and 18,000 kWh for gas. The following is taken from tables 2.2.1 and 2.3.1.

2008 Provisional bills
£
	Prepayment	Direct debit
Gas	630	528
Electricity	419	374

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John Battle: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how many homes were awaiting prepayment meter recalibration in (a) Leeds West constituency, (b) Yorkshire and the Humber and (c) the United Kingdom in each of the last 10 years. [228286]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: The Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem) collects and publishes data about the recalibration of token prepayment meters. These meters have to be individually recalibrated after each price change. From December 2006 to June 2007, the last period for which data have been published, the number of token prepayment meters in Great Britain awaiting recalibration for those suppliers who apply the price change in advance of recalibration is:

	Number
December 2006	409,000
January 2007	256,000
February 2007	196,481
March 2007	153,638
April 2007	128,097
May 2007	107,790
June 2007	(1)119,684
(1) Inaccurate data was reported for May 2007 and therefore correct figure as at end of June 2007 is higher than that reported in May.

Suppliers are working on accelerated replacement programmes to replace token prepayment meters with newer technology key meters which can be recalibrated remotely.

Fuel Poverty

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what estimate he has made of the number of (a) people and (b) households in fuel poverty, broken down by local authority area in each year since 2000; and what Government target on the reduction of fuel poverty applied in each such year. [227591]

Mr. Mike O'Brien: Since 2000, fuel poverty at a sub-regional level is only available for 2003, for England. The data for fuel poverty levels for 2003 come from the Fuel Poverty Indicator dataset available online at:

http://www.fuelpovertvindicator.org.uk/

The following table shows estimated fuel poverty levels for each local authority in England in 2003 but is provided with a warning; that it may not reflect current levels at all:

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Local authority	Level
North West
Allerdale	2,700
Barrow in Furness	2,200
Blackburn with Darwen	3,900
Blackpool	4,400
Bolton	7,100
Burnley	2,700
Bury	4,700
Carlisle	2,900
Chester	3,100
Chorley	2,600
Congleton	2,200
Copeland	2,100
Crewe and Nantwich	3,000
Eden	1,500
Ellesmere Port and Neston	2,100
Fylde	2,000
Halton	3,200
Hyndburn	2,400
Knowsley	4,200
Lancaster	3,700
Liverpool	14,200
Macclesfield	3,700
Manchester	11,900
Oldham	5,700
Pendle	2,600
Preston	3,600
Ribble Valley	1,400
Rochdale	5,500
Rossendale	1,800
Salford	6,400
Sefton	8,000
South Lakeland	2,800
South Ribble	2,500
St Helens	4,900
Stockport	7,300
Tameside	5,800
Trafford	5,500
Vale Royal	3,100
Warrington	4,800
West Lancashire	2,800
Wigan	8,300
Wirral	9,200
Wyre	2,900
North West total	187,400
South East
Adur	1,400
Arun	3,500
Ashford	2,500
Aylesbury Vale	3,600
Basingstoke and Deane	3,400
Bracknell Forest	2,200
Brighton and Hove	6,500
Canterbury	3,300
Cherwell	2,900
Chichester	2,600
Chiltern	1,900
Crawley	2,100
Dartford	2,000
Dover	2,900
East Hampshire	2,400
Eastbourne	2,400
Eastleigh	2,500
Elmbridge	2,700
Epsom and Ewell	1,400
Fareham	2,400
Gosport	1,900
Gravesham	2,300
Guildford	2,800
Hart	1,800
Hastings	2,500
Havant	2,800
Horsham	2,700
Isle of Wight	3,800
Lewes	2,200
Maidstone	3,300
Medway	6,200
Mid Sussex	2,800
Milton Keynes	4,700
Mole Valley	1,800
New Forest	4,000
Oxford	2,900
Portsmouth	5,200
Reading	3,200
Reigate and Banstead	2,700
Rother	2,300
Runnymede	1,700
Rushmoor	1,900
Sevenoaks	2,500
Shepway	2,600
Slough	2,300
South Bucks	1,300
South Oxfordshire	2,900
Southampton	5,600
Spelthorne	2,000
Surrey Heath	1,700
Swale	3,100
Tandridge	1,700
Test Valley	2,500
Thanet	3,700
Tonbridge and Mailing	2,400
Tunbridge Wells	2,500
Vale of White Horse	2,500
Waverley	2,600
Wealden	3,300
West Berkshire	3,100
West Oxfordshire	2,100
Winchester	2,400
Windsor and Maidenhead	2,900
Woking	1,900
Wokingham	3,000
Worthing	2,500
Wycombe	3,400
South East total	186,500
South West
Bath and North East Somerset	4,100
Bournemouth	4,400
Bristol City of	10,200
Caradon	2,200
Carrick	2,500
Cheltenham	2,800
Christchurch	1,100
Cotswold	2,100
East Devon	3,300
East Dorset	1,900
Exeter	2,900
Forest of Dean	2,200
Gloucester	2,900
Isles of Stilly	100
Kennet	1,800
Kerrier	2,700
Mendip	2,700
Mid Devon	1,900
North Cornwall	2,300
North Devon	2,400
North Dorset	1,500
North Somerset	4,700
North Wiltshire	3,000
Penwith	1,900
Plymouth	6,700
Poole	3,300
Purbeck	1,100
Restormel	2,700
Salisbury	2,800
Sedgemoor	2,900
South Gloucestershire	5,700
South Hams	2,100
South Somerset	4,000
Stroud	2,700
Swindon	4,400
Taunton Deane	2,700
Teignbridge	3,200
Tewkesbury	1,900
Torbay	3,700
Torridge	1,700
West Devon	1,400
West Dorset	2,500
West Somerset	1,000
West Wiltshire	3,000
Weymouth and Portland	1,700
South West total	128,900
West Midlands
Birmingham	26,500
Bridgnorth	1,400
Bromsgrove	2,100
Cannock Chase	2,300
Coventry	7,800
Dudley	7,900
East Staffordshire	2,900
Herefordshire County of	5,000
Lichfield	2,300
Malvern Hills	1,900
Newcastle under Lyme	3,300
North Shropshire	1,600
North Warwickshire	1,600
Nuneaton and Bedworth	3,100
Oswestry	1,100
Redditch	1,900
Rugby	2,200
Sandwell	7,900
Shrewsbury and Atcham	2,500
Solihull	4,600
South Shropshire	1,200
South Staffordshire	2,500
Stafford	3,100
Staffordshire Moorlands	2,500
Stoke on Trent	7,100
Stratford on Avon	2,800
Tamworth	1,800
Telford and Wrekin	4,100
Walsall	6,700
Warwick	3,000
Wolverhampton	6,600
Worcester	2,400
Wychavon	2,800
Wyre Forest	2,500
West Midlands total	138,900
Yorks and Humber
Barnsley	6,300
Bradford	12,400
Calderdale	5,400
Craven	1,500
Doncaster	8,000
East Riding of Yorkshire	8,500
Hambleton	2,200
Harrogate	3,800
Kingston upon Hull City of	7,300
Kirklees	10,700
Leeds	19,300
North East Lincolnshire	4,600
North Lincolnshire	4,300
Richmondshire	1,200
Rotherham	6,700
Ryedale	1,500
Scarborough	3,100
Selby	1,900
Sheffield	13,900
Wakefield	8,700
York	4,600
Yorks and Humber total	136,000
East Midlands
Amber Valley	3,300
Ashfield	3,200
Bassetlaw	3,000
Blaby	2,100
Bolsover	2,100
Boston	1,600
Broxtowe	2,900
Charnwood	3,800
Chesterfield	2,800
Corby	1,400
Daventry	1,700
Derby	6,100
Derbyshire Dales	1,900
East Lindsey	3,900
East Northamptonshire	2,000
Erewash	3,000
Gedling	2,900
Harborough	1,800
High Peak	2,300
Hinckley and Bosworth	2,500
Kettering	2,200
Leicester	7,500
Lincoln	2,400
Mansfield	2,800
Melton	1,300
Newark and Sherwood	2,900
North East Derbyshire	2,500
North Kesteven	2,500
North West Leicestershire	2,300
Northampton	5,000
Nottingham	7,800
Oadby and Wigston	1,300
Rushcliffe	2,600
Rutland	900
South Derbyshire	2,100
South Holland	2,200
South Kesteven	3,300
South Northamptonshire	1,900
Wellingborough	1,900
West Lindsey	2,300
East Midlands total	111,900
East England
Babergh	2,200
Basildon	4,000
Bedford	3,600
Braintree	3,200
Breckland	3,300
Brentwood	1,600
Broadland	3,000
Broxbourne	1,800
Cambridge	2,400
Castle Point	2,000
Chelmsford	3,600
Colchester	3,800
Dacorum	3,000
East Cambridgeshire	1,800
East Hertfordshire	2,800
Epping Forest	2,700
Fenland	2,300
Forest Heath	1,500
Great Yarmouth	2,700
Harlow	1,800
Hertsmere	1,900
Huntingdonshire	3,700
Ipswich	3,300
Kings Lynn and West Norfolk	3,900
Luton	4,400
Maldon	1,400
Mid Bedfordshire	2,800
Mid Suffolk	2,300
North Hertfordshire	2,700
North Norfolk	2,900
Norwich	3,500
Peterborough	4,100
Rochford	1,800
South Bedfordshire	2,500
South Cambridgeshire	2,900
South Norfolk	2,900
Southend on Sea	4,400
St. Albans	2,700
St. Edmundsbury	2,500
Stevenage	1,900
Suffolk Coastal	3,100
Tendring	3,900
Three Rivers	1,700
Thurrock	3,400
Uttlesford	1,600
Watford	1,600
Waveney	3,300
Welwyn Hatfield	2,100
East England total	131,900
London
Barking and Dagenham	3,900
Barnet	6,700
Bexley	5,000
Brent	5,300
Bromley	6,700
Camden	4,800
City of London	200
Croydon	7,700
Ealing	6,100
Enfield	6,000
Greenwich	5,300
Hackney	4,600
Hammersmith and Fulham	3,800
Haringey	5,200
Harrow	4,000
Havering	5,000
Hillingdon	4,800
Hounslow	4,300
Islington	4,200
Kensington and Chelsea	4,100
Kingston upon Thames	3,200
Lambeth	6,100
Lewisham	5,900
Merton	4,200
Newham	5,800
Redbridge	5,200
Richmond upon Thames	4,100
Southwark	5,400
Sutton	3,900
Tower Hamlets	3,800
Waltham Forest	5,300
Wandsworth	5,900
Westminster	5,600
London total	162,200
North East
Alnwick	900
Berwick upon Tweed	800
Blyth Valley	2,200
Castle Morpeth	1,200
Chester le Street	1,500
Darlington	2,800
Derwentside	2,500
Durham	2,200
Easington	2,700
Gateshead	5,600
Hartlepool	2,600
Middlesbrough	3,800
Newcastle upon Tyne	7,300
North Tyneside	5,400
Redcar and Cleveland	3,800
Sedgefield	2,500
South Tyneside	4,300
Stockton on Tees	4,700
Sunderland	7,700
Teesdale	800
Tynedale	1,600
Wansbeck	1,800
Wear Valley	1,900
North East total	70,400

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