Charity calls on Coleraine's over-60s to help force action on fuel poverty

As part of its new, ‘Affordable Warmth Campaign’, National Energy Action NI (NEA NI) wants to highlight the difficulties faced by over-60s across Northern Ireland in heating their homes.

The most recent figures available show that in 2006, 31% of households in the Coleraine Borough Council area were experiencing fuel poverty. NEA expects this figure to rise, when new statistics are published in the autumn.

At a meeting last week, delegates from government, the charity sector and local agencies were told that the strategy to help the fuel poor here is failing.

Pat Austin, Director of the NEA told the group: “Too much time has been spent discussing strategy and which groups should be targeted first - so the debate has just stagnated.

“While we are fully aware that fuel poverty is rife across many diverse sections of society in Northern Ireland - affecting almost 50% of households – we have to start somewhere in tackling the problem.

“We know that older households here are predisposed to fuel poverty, with a third of all pensioners living below the poverty line.

“Our new ‘Affordable Warmth’ campaign will help tell the story of older people here, supplementing existing data with real-life evidence about what it is like to be fuel poor.”