To heat or to eat? Britain in court on fuel poverty

By Kate Kelland

LONDON (Reuters) - Mary Phillips, a 72-year-old British pensioner, says she often escapes the cold of her council flat and the dread of unaffordable fuel bills by taking refuge in her centrally-heated local library.

But this week, she took her sofa to the streets outside the High Court to try to force the British government to do more for people like her who are being forced into an often fatal choice between heating and eating.

Wearing fluffy boots, wrapped in blankets and a dressing gown, and clutching a hot water bottle to her chest, she posed as a symbol of the some 25,000 elderly people who will die of the cold in Britain this winter.

Data collated by a lobby group, National Energy Action, show that despite a relatively mild climate, 19 percent more people in England die in winter than in other seasons, compared with 10 percent in Finland, 11 percent in Germany and 12 percent in Denmark.

"Fuel poverty" -- a phenomenon that has crept into the lower income brackets of British society in recent years -- is now at the top of the political agenda, with energy prices soaring and incomes under pressure as the economy buckles under the credit crunch.

Charities say 5 million people in Britain will struggle to heat their homes this winter, and this week they took the government to the High Court to explain why it is not doing more to help them.

PENSIONERS WORST HIT

A household in "fuel poverty" is defined as one that spends 10 percent or more of its annual income on gas and electricity, and the government has promised to do everything "reasonably practicable" to end it in vulnerable households by 2010.

"It's not all older people, but our estimates are that about one in four people aged 60 and over are living in fuel poverty," said Paul Bates, a spokesman for the Help the Aged charity, which launched the court action with environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth.

"The most vulnerable people in our society are really struggling. The basics of life are prohibitively expensive."

Fuel poverty is unique because it is the only poverty measure that the British government has pledged by law to tackle. Even the eradication of child poverty -- one of Prime Minister Gordon Brown's oft-stated aspirations -- is not a goal supported by legislation.

The government admits it is struggling to meet its own target -- putting it at risk of losing the High Court case and being forced into a judicial review of its policy decisions -- but says factors beyond its control are compounding the problem.

"This government is still committed to tackling fuel poverty, but ... sharply rising energy prices have made this goal increasingly difficult," Environment Minister Hilary Benn said in a statement.

According to government figures, the overall cost of energy to domestic consumers rose by 22 percent in real terms between 2005 and 2006, and prices have jumped yet more dramatically since then with global oil prices reaching record highs.

Benn said the government had spent 20 billion pounds ($35 billion) on the problem since 2000 and would continue to urge energy suppliers and insulation firms to help improve energy efficiency in homes.