Examination of Witnesses (Questions 480-482)
JENNY SAUNDERS
AND LESLEY
DAVIES
5 JUNE 2008
Q480 Chairman: Probably not is the
implication because you said earlier that you expect further increases
in energy prices.
Jenny Saunders: It depends. The
over 80s are getting an extra £100 on top of the £300.
It is a very significant amount of money but if we look at what
it used to buy, it used to buy about 35% of your fuel bill; it
buys about 24% now. It does not have that great an impact.
Q481 Mr Clapham: How useful is Ofgem's
Fuel Poverty Action Programme in helping to reverse fuel
poverty?
Jenny Saunders: It is not going
to reverse the fuel poverty trend significantly by its own admission.
What it is trying to do is to help people take advantage of what
is on offer in the market and to push through some voluntary initiatives.
In terms of the overall fuel poverty strategy it is not going
to significantly reverse the trend. It will bring forward some
very welcome initiatives, and we are not knocking those at all,
but we have to be serious about where the funding gap is. It is
at about £200-£300 million a year for the next ten years
as estimated by FPAG a couple of years ago before prices were
where they are, to be
invested in energy efficiency programmes and
not just in social tariff rebates.
Q482 Mr Clapham: My final question
is we have three government departments that are in some way involved
with fuel poverty—BERR, the DWP and Defra. Given that there
are three government departments with different responsibilities
for fuel poverty, does it prove to be a barrier, or is it working
reasonably well?
Jenny Saunders: It is a cross-departmental
issue, as we know. It is welcome that they all have their own
responsibilities and that is fundamental to what we want. We would
like to see the inter-ministerial taskforce meet again. It was
established but it has not met, so perhaps at a ministerial level
it would be helpful to bring them together formally again. I think
behind the scenes they are currently trying to join up initiatives.
For Defra, their fuel poverty objective is a departmental objective,
one of 70-odd now. We would like to see it having greater priority
and further up the list because there is a fear that the reason
we got the cut in the Warm Front grant was because it was lower
ranking than it had been.
Chairman: Ladies, thank you very much
indeed. We have slightly over-run, but not by much. I hope you
have had an opportunity to say all the things you wished to have
said. I think some further information was promised in some respects,
but if there is anything you think you would like to have said
to us, please feel free to put that in writing. Thank you very
much indeed.
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