Tackling fuel poverty a top priority for Assembly Committee

The Committee, which is responsible for overseeing the work of the Department for Social Development, is taking the lead in finding innovative and workable solutions.

The Assembly’s Parliament Buildings on 16 November was the venue for a ground-breaking stakeholder event. For the first time since the restoration of devolved government, eight Committees and their Government departments, community and voluntary groups and relevant agencies all came together to identify and prioritise solutions for  ending fuel poverty.

Stark facts about local fuel poverty

And the facts about local fuel poverty are stark. Some 300,000 local households are in fuel poverty with people there spending more than three times what English householders spend on heating their homes. Significantly, according to a recent Office of Fair Trading Report[1], 80% of households in Northern Ireland are not connected to the mains gas grid and 80% of these rely on the more expensive heating oil as an alternative.

Speaking about the event, Committee Chairperson, Alex Maskey MLA said:

“Fuel poverty here is amongst the worst in Northern Europe and is a contributory factor to the increased number of deaths during the winter months.  That is an indefensible and disgraceful situation and we are determined to find ways to remedy it. Being forced to choose between eating and staying warm should be totally unacceptable in a modern society.

“Addressing fuel poverty is therefore a key issue for the Committee for Social Development but we realise that this Committee cannot do it alone. Tonight’s event is ground-breaking in that the Chairs of other Statutory Committees have come together to identify and prioritise solutions to fuel poverty. I believe that this event will initiate a new ethos of collaborative working between Committees and across departments that will focus on outcomes, not processes, for the benefit of those who remain in fuel poverty.”

Northern Ireland has often been at the forefront of fuel poverty strategy. In 2002 it evaluated the first area-based approach to targeting those in fuel poverty. It published the first scientific evaluation of the Health Action Zone model, carried out the first cost-benefit analysis of regional fuel strategy and piloted an area-based community-led fuel poverty scheme ahead of the rollout of the more general Community Energy Saving Programme (CESP).

Chairperson Alex Maskey concluded:

“Because this issue impacts on the work of many different Committees and Departments, we need to know where we are before we can move to where we want to be. One of the things that we need to do is a stocktake--across the board--of what our Government departments have agreed to do to combat fuel poverty, what they have actually achieved and what the timelines are for implementing any actions.

“This stakeholder event is just the first step but we believe that if we can demonstrate the benefits of working across Committees and Departments we can really make a difference to local people. We will be compiling an initial report based on the discussions and conclusions from this event. We will then use our influence with the Executive to implement workable solutions as this issue is too important and affects too many people to be ignored.”

[1] Off-Grid Energy.  An OFT market study. October 2011