Dear Sir,

I am writing in response to Charlotte McKenzie’s letter published in the West Briton this week urging older people to claim their benefits. It is vitally important that pensioners and indeed all people on low incomes claim what they are entitled to help them stay warm.

I would however like to correct an inaccuracy of Charlotte’s concerning the last Conservative Government. Cold Weather Payments were introduced by a Conservative Government in 1986. It was previous Labour Governments that did nothing.  I was Director of Age Concern England in the 1990s and spent a great deal of time campaigning for improvements in the way payments were calculated and paid and was delighted when the Government made those changes.

I am pleased Labour introduced the Winter Fuel Allowance in 1997 - it has helped. However, as a result of dramatically rising fuel prices, people on low and fairly fixed incomes such as pensioners are still finding it very difficult to keep their homes warm. While there are grants available to install some energy efficiency measures, not everyone on low incomes is eligible.

At her lecture at Exeter University- Tremough Campus on Thursday night, Professor Brenda Boardman of Oxford University and author of “Fixing Fuel Poverty” said these cash benefits, while helping, are not the cure to the problem. She said we have to invest in making the least energy efficient homes the most. I agree.

New homes and especially social rented homes are built to very high standards of energy efficiency and therefore have much lower energy bills. We need a nationwide energy efficiency programme for all homes, enabling the retrofitting of insulation and new sustainable energy technology, especially those where people are living on low and relatively fixed incomes.

The Conservative Party’s ‘Green Deal’ is just such an idea, entitling each home up to £6,500 in energy saving measures, repaid over 25 years by savings in energy  bills.  This is a self-financing scheme working in partnership with finance providers, installers, energy suppliers and households.

Sarah Newton
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate,
Truro & Falmouth

7th February 2010