The Welsh Government is seeking views on their proposed plan for tackling fuel poverty in Wales between 2020 and 2035.
The new draft plan is informed by extensive engagement with the third sector supporting Welsh communities, including a round table held by Lesley Griffiths, Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs in June last year.
It is further informed by the Landscape Report into Fuel Poverty in Wales published in October 2019 by the Wales Audit Office, and by the work undertaken by the Senedd’s Committee for Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs inquiry into fuel poverty tabled in April.
These reports provide the backbone of the draft plan, which proposes to reduce estimated levels of fuel poverty over the next fifteen years.
The draft plan also sets out the immediate actions needed over the next two years.
The Welsh Government seeks to develop the next iteration of the Warm Homes programme which will:
- Continue to target support to lower income households who are at risk of, or living in fuel poverty;
- Continue to advance a fabric first approach to home energy efficiency retrofit, installing the most appropriate energy efficiency measures to enable householders to maintain a satisfactory heating regime at an affordable cost;
- Continue to focus investment on the most thermally inefficient homes in Wales;
- Work towards the eradication of the burning of coal, wood and heating oil in homes for primary heating purposes as part of their commitments set out in the clean air plan and ambition to be net zero by 2050;
- Install low carbon heating systems and reduce the overreliance on the burning of fossil fuels to heat homes, managing this transition in a way which does not result in more households becoming fuel poor.
Minister Griffiths is also proposing to do more to improve advice and support services to vulnerable households and people disengaged from the energy market.
In 2018, 144,000 lower income households were estimated to be living in fuel poverty in Wales. A further 145,000 Welsh households at risk of living in fuel poverty.
This means spending between eight and ten percent (8-10%) of their household income on household fuel.
This consultation will close on 31 December 2020.
