Statement by the Sustainability Committee on fuel poverty in Wales

In response to our evidence session on fuel poverty in Wales with energywatch Wales and five of the largest energy supply companies, the Sustainability Committee has agreed to issue the following interim statement:

‘The Committee was deeply concerned to hear evidence from energywatch to suggest that around 22 per cent of households in Wales are currently in fuel poverty and that 40 per cent of households that have electricity as their main fuel are considered to be ‘fuel poor’. The Committee also heard that Welsh customers are further disadvantaged by up to 10 per cent higher electricity prices compared to the average for Great Britain and are less likely to take advantage of any of the benefits associated with switching energy suppliers

What was particularly worrying for the Committee was that not all of the energy companies could provide details of exactly how much they spent on helping their customers in fuel poverty or of the programmes and schemes they provide.  At 0.49 per cent, British Gas appears to contribute the largest proportion of turnover of all suppliers. energywatch has calculated that, if all other energy suppliers matched this spend as a percentage of turnover, another £72.3 million would be spent in total on fuel poverty.

Whilst we welcome the announcement which followed our evidence session that the ‘big six’ energy companies are to voluntarily triple their collective annual spend on ‘social assistance’ to £150 million by 2011 ., we are deeply concerned that this will be a drop in the ocean if energy companies continue to push up prices by unacceptable amounts.

We were astonished to find out that social tariffs, which are aimed at those in fuel poverty, are sometimes higher than the lowest available tariffs offered by the same energy company.   We would urge energy companies to address this anomaly as a matter of urgency and to make efforts to simplify their tariffs, to allow customers to understand their bills and to switch suppliers more easily.

We as a Committee recognise the important role that the media plays in highlighting the issue of fuel poverty as it affects people living in Wales and would welcome continued widespread coverage of this issue.

We welcome the efforts of the Welsh Assembly Government in addressing fuel poverty through schemes such as the Home Energy Efficiency Scheme and look forward to hearing the views of the Minister for Environment, Sustainability and Housing on the future of this programme when she gives evidence to the Committee next month.  The Committee also intends to respond with evidence of the Welsh perspective to Ofgem’s current inquiry into energy supply markets in Britain’.