ABSTRACT
The problem of fuel poverty is getting worse: more people are in poverty and the quality of their homes is hardly improving-certainly not relative to higher income groups. The imposition of VAT on domestic fuels will deepen and extend fuel poverty, firstly because most existing sufferers cannot be compensated sufficiently through the package of measures announced in November 1993. Secondly, because the imposition of VAT has made fuel more expensive and extended the boundaries of fuel poverty, more people will have inadequate levels of warmth. There is now widespread concern about the problems of the fuel poor and a growing recognition that their homes have to be made energy efficient before further price or tax increases can be imposed. This is particularly true of the proposed European-wide carbon and energy tax.
