Speaking out about fuel poverty

The Bevan Foundation has urged a Senedd Committee to call for action on fuel poverty as thousands struggle with heating bills

The Bevan Foundation has urged a Senedd Committee to recommend a step change in action to help people to heat their homes. Giving evidence to the Equality and Social Justice Committee on 14th February 2022, the Bevan Foundation’s director, Victoria Winckler, said that although the Warm Homes programme had provided help for some people, it had not reached thousands more who struggled with heating bills.

Victoria first of all outlined the two big challenges that she saw facing the Warm Homes programme:

I see two big challenges in the programme. The first one is scale. It really is a drop in the ocean compared with the challenges and the number of people who are in fuel poverty, and I think we’d also see an issue of focus: is it a fuel poverty programme, is it a crisis boiler replacement programme or is it a decarbonisation programme?  

Victoria went on to argue that the current Warm Homes programme was not sufficiently focused on reducing fuel poverty. She said that the eligibility criteria, in terms of eligible properties and household incomes, were too restrictive and in effect excluded many people who were in fuel poverty. 

A transcript of the session is available here.