§ Mr. McLoughlinTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry how many(a) children and (b) elderly people are living in fuel poor households in (i) the East Midlands and (b) West Derbyshire. [150922]
§ Nigel GriffithsFuel poverty defined as occurring when a household needs to spend more than 10 per cent. of its income (including housing benefit and income support for mortgage interest) on all fuels in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime.
The available information from the English House Condition Survey indicates that in 2001 there were 160,000 fuel poor households in the East Midlands Government Office region. (The current published official estimates of fuel poverty are extrapolated from a sample survey of 17,500 dwellings).
More detailed breakdowns within the East Midlands Government Office region are not available from this survey as the sample size is not large enough to enable reliable detailed estimates of fuel poverty at a more local level to be produced.
In England in 2001 under this definition there were 1.7 million households in fuel poverty. Of these, 210,000 contained children. 904,000 contained one or more persons aged 60 or more. The Government's estimates are available at:www.dti.gov.uk/energy/consumers/ fuel_poverty/index.shtml