2m kids facing fuel poverty, study finds

More than two million children in the UK are living in fuel poverty.

Newly-released research from the Energy Revolution highlights just how severe the situation is, as many families are being forced to leave their heating off despite the fact temperatures are still very low. 

Indeed, there are now 460,000 more children in cold homes than a year ago, which represents a 26 per cent rise and it shows how the economic recovery is not making everyone's life easier. 

In order to cover their heating costs, families are cutting back on a range of other essential items, such as school equipment, clothing, or food as they try their hardest not to run up massive debts.

With just under one-fifth (19 per cent) of Britons admitting they have been forced to turn off their heating at some point during the winter months, the starkness of the situation has been made clear. 

Ed Matthew, director of the Energy Bill Revolution, is calling on the government to make better insulation the UK's "number one infrastructure spending priority". He thinks that "better insulation will save families hundreds of pounds on their energy bills and eliminate fuel poverty once and for all". 

Yesterday (February 3rd) saw the launch of Cold Homes Week, which will see a series of events held involving 100 organisations in an effort to encourage the government to do more about fuel poverty and insulation. 

Labour's shadow energy and climate change secretary Caroline Flint thinks the figures lay bare the "full scale of the cost-of-living crisis unfolding in Britain". She pointed out that the end of the practice of unfair energy bills rises could save households up to £120 a year. 

Under the current definition of fuel poverty, which means people who live below the poverty line and have an energy bill higher than the median, some seven million consumers in England are affected. 

By Amy White