Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Lord Beith (Liberal Democrat). It was answered on Friday, 25 September 2009 on behalf of the North East Regional Grand Committee.

Pensioner Poverty

Question: I, too, am very pleased to be in Middlesbrough under your chairmanship, Mr. Cook, and I am pleased to receive such an interesting welcome from the mayor and the hon. Member for Blaydon (Mr. Anderson). May I direct the Minister’s attention to the fuel poverty plight of pensioners in rented property, particularly in rural areas? They are unable to access the Government schemes. The landlord is supposedly responsible for the central heating systems, or indeed their absence, and the pensioners cannot get dual fuel tariffs because they are in areas not served by gas. They are still suffering the fuel poverty that the Government are trying to address.

Answer: As the right hon. Gentleman knows, the Government have a number of schemes to address fuel poverty, some of which are universal, so the pensioners he speaks of will have access to those. On the specific case to which he referred, the devil is in the detail. I am more than happy to sit down with him to work through the details of the case and see what representations we can make to my colleagues in government, particularly in the relevant Departments, on behalf of our region.

Secondary information