Fuel Poverty and the Executive

Hi sorry its been a while. Place is bit busy in run up to Christmas.



As some of you will be aware from the Lets Make Fuel Poverty History in Northern Ireland/Ireland facebook site things have been getting interesting in recent days. It started with questions to the First and Deputy First Minister on Monday that were being answered by Martin McGuinness. Several Alliance and SDLP MLAs asked why the Executive had not done anything about fuel poverty the response was a fairly non committal we will look at it at our earliest opportunity nothing was coming.

So after some pushing and prompting from some organisations and individuals the parties decided to talk about it at the Executive yesterday! So 176 days since the paper went to the Executive the games have stopped and the issue will be discussed.

Whilst we dont know any details of what will be announced (on Monday) we can guess that a contribution in the region of £150 - £200 will be paid into the electricity accounts of the most vulnerable in Northern Ireland. This will cost approximately £13m.

SDLP Leader Mark Durkan informs us today that there is expected to be an announcement next week on electricity costs being reduced by 10% not much more than a gesture when prices rose by 50%. Also Phoenix Gas prices are expected to be lowered by 20% in the run up to Christmas. So a few gifts to the fuel poor then.

It should be noted that these short term measures will do little to rid us of fuel poverty. This is going to take a massive leap forward in imagination and creativity from politicians, energy companies, charities and others.