Delay on fuel poverty statistics unacceptable says AM

12.00.00am GMT Wed 9th Jan 2008

Up-to-date statistics detailing the number of people living in fuel poverty in individual Welsh communities due to be published in summer 2007 have been delayed until at least June 2008 because the research has not even been started yet, the Welsh Liberal Democrat Social Justice spokesperson, Peter Black, has discovered.

The former Minister for Social Justice and Regeneration commissioned the Centre for Sustainable Energy to estimate the number of people living in fuel poverty in each electoral ward in Wales with a target date of summer 2007 however these figures are not now going to produced until at least June 2008.

The latest statistics that are available date back to 2004, it was estimated that 134,000 households in Wales lived in fuel poverty, but these will not take into account recent sustained increases in fuel prices. Last week, energy company 'Npower' announced that they will be raising electricity prices by 12.7% and gas prices by 17.2%. The most recent estimate is that there are approximately 240,000 fuel poor households in Wales, double the number of three years ago.

"If the government is serious about it's commitments to tackle fuel poverty then they must have adequate information about the extent and scope of the problem in Wales," said Mr. Black. "Without accurate statistics then they will be unable to target scarce resources and their current strategy will become no more than a random stab in the dark."

"The 2004 statistics only give estimates based on three geographical areas of North, Mid and South Wales and there are clear regional differences. A realistic plan to deal with fuel poverty would have to be based upon a knowledge of which communities are most in need of support and this cannot be achieved with the information currently available."