CROSS-DEPARTMENTAL MINISTERIAL TASK FORCE ON FUEL POVERTY

That this House notes with concern that, according to its own estimates, the Government is not on course to meet its statutory obligation to end fuel poverty in vulnerable households by 2010 and that there have been substantial increases in fuel poverty in all sectors; further notes that the latest Fuel Poverty Advisory Group Annual Report identified that Government programmes lack co-ordination and that the responsibility for fuel poverty is dispersed across many different Government departments; welcomes the recommendations of this report that the roles of all departments need to be clearly defined and that a significant contribution on fuel poverty be made by a Ministerial cross-departmental commitment; further notes that this was also the stated pre-requisite for all other recommendations in the just published seminal report How Much? The cost of alleviating fuel poverty in England to be implemented, as well as the main recommendation from the event Fuel Poverty - Mapping the Next Decade preceding this report; and calls upon the Government to set up a Ministerial cross-departmental task force consisting of the Department for Communities and Local Government, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department of Health, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, the Department for Work and Pensions and the Treasury to deal exclusively with ensuring that the Government meets its statutory fuel poverty targets in the short, medium and long-term.