§ Mr. BrakeTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions what estimate he has made of the number of households that will be taken out of fuel poverty by Government schemes in each of the next 15 years; and what estimate he has made of the cost of such schemes in each of the next 15 years. [118414]
§ Mr. MeacherA key programme is the New Home Energy Efficiency Scheme, which with a budget of £260 million over the next two years, is currently expected to take 460,000 households out of fuel poverty. The impact of other policies on the number of fuel poor households is less clear.
We estimate the number of households in fuel poverty is currently about 4.5 million, and that at current rates of the HEES programme the great majority should be removed from fuel poverty within a decade.