§ Mr. Peter AinsworthTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what plans she has to include policies to combat fuel poverty in her Department's aims and objectives. [8299]
§ Margaret Beckett[holding answer 15 October 2001]: My Department gives high priority to policies to tackle fuel poverty as part of our provisional objective of promoting more sustainable management and use of natural resources including energy.
The UK Fuel Poverty Strategy was published on 21 November. This set out the Government's goal to seek an end to the problem of fuel poverty, with the first target to ensure that by 2010, no vulnerable household—older people, families, disabled and long-term sick—need risk ill health due to a cold home.