Thousands unable to pay fuel bills as they fall below the poverty line

ONE IN 10 of households in some of Yorkshire’s most affluent towns and cities have been pushed below the poverty line and struggled to pay their fuel bills, new figures show.

Nationwide, around 2.5 million households were enduring fuel poverty in 2015, the Government statistics show, including more than a quarter of a million – more than 12 per cent of homes – in Yorkshire.

Levels of fuel poverty, measured as facing high bills and low incomes, were highest in the private rented sector where more than a fifth of households faced an average shortfall of £410 to pay their bills. And in Yorkshire, while the greatest number affected were in communities in Bradford and Kirklees, one in 10 households in traditionally affluent York and Harrogate were struggling.

Peter Smith, director of policy and research at anti-fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA), said it was “hugely disappointing” to see fuel poverty in England continue to rise.

“Sadly we think cold homes needlessly kill up to 80 people per day in the winter months. This is not acceptable in the fifth largest economy in the world,” he said.

He called for UK-wide resources to stop “tragic winter deaths” and a joint ministerial summit on health and fuel poverty. “Cold homes also cause untold havoc to our national health services.”

Fuel-poor households faced an

average gap of more than £350 between their bills and what they could afford to pay, the figures from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) showed.

The highest prevalence of fuel poverty was for single parents with dependent children, with almost a quarter in difficulties.

James Taylor, head of policy and public affairs at disability charity Scope, warned that disabled people often faced far higher costs than others, and a third were forced to cut back on energy consumption in the past year.

“As a result, many are forced to skip meals or borrow money in order to keep up with payments,” he said.

Disabled people frequently have to use more energy because they can be less mobile, need to regulate their body temperature, or have to charge specialist equipment. Government, regulators and energy companies must take real action to tackle disability-related costs, he said.

“This must include better identification of disabled people when they initially become customers and support to manage their spending during their contract.”

The figures show a disparity across Yorkshire, with 15 per cent in Bradford struggling compared to nine per cent in Selby.

A spokesman for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “The Government is committed to tackling fuel poverty and support worth £770m is helping to decrease the fuel poverty gap, as these figures show.

“The best long-term solution is to improve energy efficiency which is bringing the cost of heating homes down, and that’s exactly what we’re doing through programmes like ECO: Help to Heat, which will upgrade more than 200,000 homes each year.”