To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform how many and what proportion of (a) households and (b) individuals are in fuel poverty in each (i) county and (ii) region in England; what change this represents from the equivalent figures in 2002; what assistance his Department makes available to (A) families and (B) individuals to help with fuel costs; what the average amount paid by his Department is per (1) family and (2) individual experiencing fuel poverty; what plans he has to change this amount during the next six months; what conditions determine the amount received; what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on fuel poverty; and if he will make a statement. (223425)

[holding answer 10 September 2008]: I have been asked to reply.

The most recently published data on households in fuel poverty relate to 2005 and show that, in England, there are around 1.5 million fuel poor households, approximately 7 per cent. of all households. The lowest level at which this data are broken down annually is by Government office region. Estimates of fuel poverty at this level are published online and shown below. The Government are planning to publish updated figures shortly.

No regional figures exist for 2002, so comparisons have been made for 2001. The following table sets out differences between the figures for 2005 and corresponding numbers for 2001. Note that in the table, a positive number indicates a rise in numbers to 2005 and a negative value represents a reduction.

Fuel poverty is not measured at an individual level.

Vulnerable households are helped by the Warm Front scheme in England which provides grants to low income households for energy efficiency measures to their homes. Just over £800 million has been allocated to this programme over the current three-year spending period. The Government announced recently an extra £74 million over the next two years for this scheme.

Other forms of assistance include the winter fuel payments introduced by the Government in 1997 to help pensioners. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) spends around £2 billion a year on this programme. For this winter only, an extra investment of £575 million will be made to fund an additional payment of £50 to eligible households with someone aged 60-79 and £100 to eligible households with someone aged 80 or over. DWP also fund the cold weather payments, paying over £20 million in total over the last five years to eligible households experiencing sustained periods of cold weather. A further £1.5 billion will be provided over the next three years by the energy companies under their carbon emissions reduction target (CERT) obligations to fund energy efficiency improvements in a priority group of low income and elderly customers. In addition, in April my Department secured the individual agreement of the six largest energy suppliers to increase the level of their collective spend on social programmes, which include social tariffs and rebates, to £150 million a year by 2010-11.

On 11 September, the Government announced further help, with an extra £1 billion package to tackle fuel poverty. The proposed new package includes £910 million towards the National Home Energy Saving Programme. This £910 million is made up of a 20 per cent. increase in funding for the existing CERT programme, with the remainder coming from a new Community Energy Saving Programme to be funded by energy suppliers and electricity generators. Throughout the country, a partnership of local councils, voluntary organisations and energy companies will carry out house-to-house calls to offer energy efficiency help in some of the most deprived areas of the UK. In addition, the Government will be increasing the cold weather payments from £8.50 to £25 per week for winter 2008-09.

The Secretary of State has regular meetings with the Chancellor to discuss a range of issues, including fuel poverty.