this morning I attended the Wirral Fuel Poverty Forum, which is a body consisting of service providers and other agencies where the issues surrounding fuel poverty are discussed.

It was an interesting morning with various speakers all giving an extra insight into the plight of those in fuel poverty, of particular interest was a speaker from the Citizens Advice Bureau who explained that the definition of fuel poverty is where fuel costs exceed 10% of income, obviously those on benefits or low incomes are likely to be classed as being in fuel poverty, a situation which will be made worse by the Tory led coalition attack on the most vulnerable in society with benefit cuts and the rise in VAT.

On a more positive note we were given an update on the Wirral wide free insulation program, which is a scheme incepted by the previous Labour led administration on Wirral Borough Council, whereby every home in Wirral will be entitled to free loft insulation, initially the scheme will be targeted at areas of high fuel poverty at the same time as trying to identify those hard to reach people who may need help with various issues.