Lamb Takes Fuel Poverty Fight To The Top

12.00.00am GMT Fri 23rd Jan 2009

North Norfolk MP, Norman Lamb is taking the issue of fuel poverty in rural areas to the top corridors of government. He has written to to both Ed Milliband MP, Minister of State for Energy and Climate, and Hilary Benn MP at Defra to outline his concern at the rising cost of heating of homes for those who do not have a gas supply.

"I am very concerned that the government is overlooking fuel poverty in rural areas. Many people in my North Norfolk constituency are reliant upon oil or Liquid Petroleum Gas and have no other choice but to bear the brunt of drastically rising costs" said Norman Lamb MP.

Norman was responding to a recent report in which the Commission for Rural Communities outlined the hardship facing some rural communities. It has proposed that;

i) The sale of domestic fuel oil and LPG should be regulated equally within the domestic energy market

ii) Robust social tariffs for domestic fuel oil and LPG should be introduced to alleviate fuel poverty.

iii) The Warm Front scheme needs to be made more flexible in respect of rural areas because many rural homes are unsuitable for the forms of assistance currently available - notably some loft and cavity wall insulation.

Norman has now taken these proposals to Ministers: "I have written to the key Secretaries of State to get some answers to these proposals as the impact of high energy costs in rural areas seems grossly unfair. This is of course compounded even further in areas where there is a low wage economy such as in North Norfolk."