Shropshire Star

Thousands in Shropshire living in fuel poverty

Shropshire has one of the highest amounts of people living in fuel poverty in the country, new figures have revealed.

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In Shropshire there are 19,572 fuel poor households, which makes it 13th worst out of the 152 local authorities in England.

The data was released by Age UK as part of its Warm Homes campaign against fuel poverty, warning that 24,000 older people could die because of the cold.

However the figures include all households, regardless of their occupants' age. They were worked out based on the household income and someone is classed as 'fuel poor' if they would spend so much of their earnings to heat their home it would leave them below the poverty line.

Shropshire also has had 1,740 excess winter deaths between 2002 to 2012, making it 96th out of 126 local authorities.

This is the ratio of extra deaths from all causes that happen in the winter months compared to the average of the number of non-winter deaths of the same period.

Caroline Abrahams of Age UK said: "No older person should worry that they could die from the cold in their own home.

"Fuel poverty is a national scandal which has claimed the lives of too many people for far too long and left many more suffering from preventable illness.

"We want a permanent solution and we believe it is within our grasp, if there is the necessary imagination and political will."

Age UK say one of the main causes of cold homes in the UK is poor insulation, and the UK has some of the worst levels of home energy efficiency in Europe.

It says with proper insulation and energy efficiency measures, the charity says nearly all homes in the UK could be made much warmer.

Age UK estimates this could cut energy bills by £400 a year for the average home, and save some of the £1.36 billion that cold homes are estimated to cost the NHS each year.

Elsewhere in the West Midlands, Wolverhampton has 19,057 homes in fuel poverty and Stafford has 4,842. In South Staffordshire there are 3,882 fuel poor home and the Wyre Forest has 5,679 homes.

A Government spokesman said: "Around 12.5m older people are due to receive £2.15bn in help from Winter Fuel Payments this year. What's more a total of £700m has been paid out to vulnerable people in Cold Weather Payments since 2010 – and this year the Warm Home Discount is providing £310m of extra help to those at risk of fuel poverty.

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