Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Oral Answer of 6 November 2014, Official Report, column 959, on energy bills, what the evidential basis was for the statement that even more people will be taken out of fuel poverty as a result of the changes to the Energy Company Obligation in 2012.

The changes to ECO led to a ringfencing of support delivered to low income households up to 2015 and an extension of the overall scheme out to 2017. This additional support will take more people out of fuel poverty and improve the energy efficiency levels of all those who receive a measure. The Impact Assessment that quantified the effect of these changes showed that 10,000 fewer people would be in fuel poverty in comparison to not making any changes to ECO at all. This Impact Assessment can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/373650/ECO_IA_with_SoS_e-sigf_v2.pdf