As the row about the cut to the Feed-in Tariff rumbles on, and DECC begins to digest the responses to the Green Deal consultation, Kate de Selincourt ponders the role of both these schemes in tacking fuel poverty in our latest Soapbox.

She observes that both the Feed-in Tariff and the proposed Energy Company Obligations impose a levy on the fuel bills of all consumers, in order to assist just a few. And in general, fuel price rises are felt particularly keenly by those in fuel poverty. Ironically, the Green Deal’s ‘Affordable Warmth ECO’, despite its explicit aims of tackling fuel poverty, may hit the fuel poor even harder than does the FiT.

It seems the harder DECC tries to push energy companies to help the fuel poor, the more the fuel poor end up paying. In conclusion, Kate de Selincourt suggests, perhaps it’s time that funding for fuel poverty measures was removed from energy bills, and moved over to health and welfare budgets, where it might more logically belong?