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Gordon Lishman, Age Concern’s Director General, attended the summit. He said:

 "The high profile presence of ministers and energy bosses at today’s summit should not fool people into believing that solutions to eradicate fuel poverty are being delivered. Whilst the Government’s strategy to tackle the problem is unravelling, well over two million older people are living in fuel poverty and growing increasingly anxious about their rapidly rising fuel bills. Gordon Brown must prove he is in touch with people’s concerns by holding his own urgent summit to get the strategy back on track.”

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Notes to editors

• Ofgem’s fuel poverty summit took place this morning at Central Hall, Westminster. It was attended by seven Government Ministers, a senior EU Commission representative, four Chief Executives and two senior representatives from the six major energy companies, together with many of those from the voluntary sector who are actively involved in the fuel poverty area, including Age Concern.
• A household is defined as ‘fuel poor’ when it spends more than 10% of its income on fuel costs.

Our demands to the Government on fuel poverty

• The Government’s fuel poverty strategy should be urgently revised, with new policies and measures announced as soon as possible. 
• Mandatory social tariffs for vulnerable households, which offer the lowest market rate, must be made compulsory through the current Energy Bill.
• A commitment to recycle the £400 million in extra VAT revenue the Government is receiving from fuel price increases to fund measures to help those in fuel poverty. The Warm Front programme should be urgently reviewed, with funding immediately increased by at least 25% and the maximum grant available under the scheme increased significantly.
• The Winter Fuel Payment should be permanently increased to reflect unprecedented energy price increases in recent years and should also be extended to other vulnerable groups under the age of 60. 

Factfile

• Older people are more likely to be affected by fuel poverty than any other group. Age Concern estimates there are now more than 2.25 million older households in fuel poverty in the UK.
• Almost 1 in 5 UK households – an estimated 4.5 million – are now living in fuel poverty.
• Energywatch estimates the average annual energy bill is now £1058.
• Age Concern calculations show that the average fuel bill for someone aged 65-74 has leapt up to £1,010 – 15% of the average income of a 65-74 year old single pensioner. Over 75s in the same position fare little better, with an average annual fuel bill of £891 – 13% of the average income of a single pensioner.
• When the £200 Winter Fuel Payment was first paid it covered over a third of the average fuel bill it now covers less than a fifth.
• There were 22,300 excess winter deaths of older people last year - nearly 90 per cent of all excess winter deaths are of people over the age of 65.

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