§ Mr. BestTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will make a statement on the progress of the Government's commitment to end fuel poverty by 2010. [167769]
§ Mr. MorleyThe UK Fuel Poverty Strategy Second Annual Progress Report was published recently, providing an update of progress during the last year. The most recent estimates show a fall in the number of households in fuel poverty in the UK to 2.25 million in1664W 2002, from around 3 million in 2001. The number of fuel poor households in England in 2002 is estimated to have fallen to around 1.4 million.
The Fuel Poverty Implementation Plan, due to be published in the summer, will set out proposals for achieving our target to eradicate fuel poverty, as far as reasonably practicable, by 2010 for all vulnerable households in England and 2016 for all households in England.