25 February 2009
Campaign group Consumer Focus has suggested that energy efficiency needs to be seen as a key method for tackling fuel poverty.
Jonathon Stearn, a campaigner for the organisation, thinks one of the reasons the UK government has not met some of its fuel poverty targets is because energy efficiency has not been considered a "central element of any target" before.
Explaining some of Consumer Focus' ideas, he said: "We think that the level of energy efficiency that has to be achieved in all housing should be the same as if the house was built today and that would effectively fuel poverty-proof the home."
The government must stop people having to make the choice between food and fuel, the campaigner added.
With the fragility of the economy a concern and UK unemployment predicted to surpass three million in the year ahead, more families can expect to end up in fuel poverty during the course of 2009.