Fuel poverty highest ever in England under Labour, new figures reveal

News release

The number of fuel poor households in England is now higher than at any time recorded since Labour came to power, shocking new Government figures estimate today. The Government's fuel poverty strategy was slammed by Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged, who are taking Ministers to court on Monday, October 6, 2008, over its failure to tackle fuel poverty.

The Government's annual fuel poverty progress report - which has been published today - reveals that:

• In 2008, 3.5 million households in England are estimated to be in fuel poverty - in 1998 [1] the figure was 3.4 million.
• The number of English homes in fuel poverty is estimated to have risen almost three-fold since 2004, when it stood at 1.2 million.
• The Government admits that it will miss its legal target to eliminate fuel poverty for vulnerable households by 2010.
  

The Government has not produced estimates for the number of houses in fuel poverty across the UK in 2008 - Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged calculate that there are now at least five million households in fuel poverty across the UK.

Friends of the Earth director Andy Atkins said:

"The Government's fuel poverty strategy is in meltdown - fuel poverty in England has tripled in four years and it is estimated that more English households are now in fuel poverty than have ever been recorded under this Government's leadership.

"The only long term solution to fuel poverty is a massive energy efficiency programme. This will heat homes, cut bills and help meet our targets for tackling climate change.

"Ministers have legal obligations to do all they can to end fuel poverty - Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged are taking the Government to court next week to ensure that they do."

Mervyn Kohler, Special Adviser for Help the Aged, says:

"Fuel poverty is escalating out of control and the response from Government has been completely feeble. According to today's progress report, it is now obvious to all that the Government will not meet its legal obligation to eradicate fuel poverty in vulnerable households by 2010. This is a far cry from the progress we need.

"This winter, millions of people will be cutting back on food or fuel or both, putting their health in jeopardy and living in misery. The Government's report lists at length the measures it is taking, but with no assessment of how effective they will be at reducing fuel poverty.

"What's needed is a Government strategy that combines both short and long term solutions - crisis payments to help with the here and now and, in the longer term, improvements to the energy efficiency of our housing stock. That's why Help the Aged and Friends of the Earth have sought a judicial review, to ensure the Government finally delivers on its duty to end fuel poverty."

This Judicial Review will take place before a High Court judge on 6-7 October.

Although the Government is legally bound to do all that is reasonably practical to eradicate fuel poverty for vulnerable households by 2010 and for all households by 2016, five million households in England will struggle to heat and power their homes this winter. In February this year, the Government's own advisory group, the Fuel Poverty Advisory Group, reported that the Government appears to have given up on its 2010 target altogether. The charities' case will highlight:

• Government failure to provide a comprehensive and costed plan of action for meeting its targets;
• Government failure to set a minimum standard of energy efficiency to be applied to affected households;
• Repeated criticism of the Government from the independent Fuel Poverty Advisory Group;
• The Government's own admission that targets to reduce and eventually eliminate fuel poverty are likely to be missed.
  

It must be noted that 1998 is the earliest date after Labour came to power for which figures are available.

Source: Friends of the Earth
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Rises in gasoline prices could give boost public transport

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

The operators of bus services could benefit greatly from the ever rising gas and diesel prices, according to investment experts.

The ever increasing prices at the filling station pumps for gasoline and diesel are driving commuters out of cars and onto public transport – and bus and train providers should take advantage of the opportunity.

This move would be even bigger, of that I am sure, if the prices would actually be at a sustainable level; one low enough that would make it cheaper for people to use the bus, train, tube and tram, and other means of public transit.

Public transport operators have been offered an opportunity by the increasing numbers of people choosing public transport for environmental reasons, and could make something great out of this if they would now take the jump and reduce the ticket prices, especially the rail prices, which tend to be more expensive – about double if not more – than flying.

Mike Fox, CIS Sustainable Leaders trust fund manager at The Co-operative Investments said: "Commuters now have more than just environmental reasons to leave the car at home.

"The rising cost of filling up at the pumps is leading increasing numbers of people to choose public transport to save money and it is good news for providers."

Arriva and National Express are two companies that are particularly well-placed to benefit from increasing switches to public transport.

If congestion charging is extended to other UK cities, outside of London, public transport could benefit from significant new investment through the Government's Transport Innovation Fund (TIF) of the UK's Department of Transport.

Government funding to the tune of £2.8bn for public transport improvements could be made available through the (TIF). The question is: will it? Is the government prepared to actually invest in public transit, as it is done in other countries.

Transport bosses have promised most improvements would be in place before the charge comes into effect in 2013, including extra trains and buses, better stations, and an extension of the Metrolink.

The question here is, at what cost to the user... for so far every time that there are supposed improvements in the transport system infrastructure the fares rise even higher and higher.

The fact is that the infrastructure, ever since the public transport systems in the UK have been privatized under the Thatcher government, and the service in general, has gone from bad to worse, though some of the new trains are rather good. The fares have risen out of all proportions because of the only thing the companies are were and are really interested in is their bottom line, their profit and how much they can give to their shareholders. I am sure there is another way. In fact there is. Other countries in the European Union prove that.

We need to find the right way to get people back onto public transport and not just because people get forced off the car because of rising fuel costs. We need to make public transport more desirable – for lack of a better word – to all commuters and travellers. For this, aside from good stations and reliable service, the fares must come down to an affordable level. It is simply stupid when a plane ticket to Belfast from London is £45 single when the train fare, return, is about £300. This does not compute. Neither does a ticket from London to Birmingham that by train costs £200+ and the same by plane would work out to about £65 return. Duh? Something wrong here somewhere.

© M Smith (Veshengro), July 2008

The school bus may not come next school year

In the new school year the bus may not make a stop for your kid as high fuel prices force cost-cutting nationwide

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Families are not the only ones who are examining their driving habits as fuel prices continue to climb. The same applies for municipal governments, police departments and school districts. They are all also tightening their belts, as budgets get stretched by high fuel costs.

In certain suburban areas, school officials are asking children to walk farther to their bus stops so districts can squeeze a few more miles per gallon. In other areas it may be a case that children will be asked to walk to school altogether or to cycle. I am sure that there will be more districts and counties to follow suit soon, as it would not appear that the prices will be going down in the near future. It seems that they will rise still further. The $200 a barrel oil by the end of the decade, e.g. 2010, does not seem all that far off anymore; a notion when mentioned by Dr. Stephen Leep in his book “The Coming Economic Collapse” was laughed off as impossible fantasy.

The scaling back of bus routes could be an inconvenience to parents, but provided there is a safe sidewalk to use, a little extra walk will surely not hurt most students. Some certainly can do with the exercise of walking or cycling to school.

Reacting to the new bus route by dropping kids off in the family SUV would not be the best solution, from an environmental perspective; reducing unnecessary school bus trips is. Older diesel school buses can pump out twice the asthma-inducing pollution of a tractor trailer.

The greenest way to get your kid to school would be walking him or her to school, if they need escorting, cycling with your child to school, or have them use the walking or cycling school bus.

Diesel, which runs most school buses, has been at or near all-time high prices per gallon, and currently sits at an average of about $4.76 a gallon. Gasoline prices also hit a new record recently, of nearly $4.09 a gallon, on average. That has some police departments eliminating patrols or even putting their beat cops in golf carts to save on fuel.

In the UK some police departments have begun using – though not because of the fuel costs but rather in order to reduce the environmental footprint – electric patrol scooters. Those can cruise at 40mph for quite a considerable distance and have a top speed of, so I understand, about 70mph. In that mode, however, the battery does not last all that long.

© M Smith (Veshengro), June 2008

Mule Power!

Farmers in the United States are turning to mule power to fight rising oil prices

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Rural areas in the United States are now feeling the severe and profound effects of the ever rising fuel prices. The fuel price rise is felt more stronger in the countryside than in other parts of the country. This due to the combination of lower incomes and also and especially the heavier dependence on farming equipment, tractors, pickup trucks and vans, which either require gasoline or diesel in order to run.

In addition to other trends (gasoline theft, buying less meat, switching jobs for a shorter commute), the dilemma has led some farmers to turn to less energy-intensive forms of tilling land – or in a word, mules.

According to a recent survey by the Oil Price Information Service, Americans typically spend 4 percent of their after-tax income on gasoline. In rural areas however, such as the counties in the Mississippi Delta, families may spend up to 13 percent on fuel. It is a disparity that may not be so apparent in the Northeastern states, where families generally earn more, drive shorter distances or have better access to public transportation.

Benefits of Mule Power

But with fuel now $4 a gallon, and in some cases over that, some farmers have now switched over by modifying their equipment to shift the weight equally between two mules. Though training the animals to pull the equipment is initially time-consuming, the substitution means that savings of up to $60 a day on fuel can be had.

All the mules need, some of the farmers said, is some hay and a little sweet feed, a little shell corn. “You gotta rub around on them and talk to them,” one farmer said, “stay acquainted with them, where they know you.”

More and more farmers in are now falling back on good, old resourcefulness. Suddenly there is a lot of mule power around in many places. When you get to where you can't afford the gas, you hook the mules up, so it seems.

Modern equipment doesn't translate automatically to older methods. The weights have to be shifted so that each animal pulls equally, for example. But the savings have been immediate.

The way things are going the old methods, the methods that are still being used by the Old Order Amish, for instance, are coming back into their own.

This may not be the thing for every farm, especially not the large ones but, I guess, we will have to see what happens.

The buggy and horse or mule for rural transportation may also come back with the way things seem to be going. The same may be true for the humble bicycle.

© M Smith (Veshengro), June 2008