Section:GDN 1N PaGe:30 Edition Date:190724 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 23/7/2019 20:19 cYanmaGentaYellowb
- The Guardian Wednesday 24 July 2019
(^30) Financial
Jillian Ambrose
A further million homes in England
could receive help in reducing energy
bills under the government’s latest
plans to tackle fuel poverty.
Ministers plan to alter the way
the government calculates fuel pov-
erty, after admitting that much more
needed to be done to reach the targets.
Under the government’s current
defi nition 2.55m households experi-
ence fuel poverty through having low
income relative to big energy bills.
Under the new defi nition about
3.66m households will be considered
fuel poor for meeting the existing cri-
teria and also living in draughty homes
with low energy effi ciency ratings.
Chris Skidmore, the energy
minister, said: “The best long-term
solution to addressing fuel poverty
is to improve household energy effi -
ciency. That is why we have set the fuel
poverty target for England, and com-
mitted in our manifesto to improve
the energy effi ciency of as many fuel-
poor households as we can.”
The government plans to increase
the energy effi ciency standards of all
fuel-poor homes to a C-banding on the
energy performance certifi cate (EPC)
rating scale by 2030. At the moment
only between 11 % and 12 % of fuel-poor
households live in homes which reach
this energy effi ciency grade.
Skidmore said that “steady pro-
gress” was being made but much
more needed to be done to meet the
fuel poverty target and “end the blight
of cold homes”.
The government had opened a
consultation on its fuel poverty strat-
egy after fi nding that the number of
children living in fuel-poor homes had
climbed by 12% from 2010.
The charity National Energy Action
said it planned to use the consultation
to urge the government to increase
its public spending to meet its fuel
poverty targets. It estimated the gov-
ernment would need to spend an extra
£15.8bn to bridge the gap between the
current standards of household energy
effi ciency and the targets.
The fuel poverty committee, the
government’s offi cial advisers, has
suggested near-term proposals to help
reduce the funding shortfall to just
under £9bn. But about £3bn of extra
public spending will still be needed
over the next six years to meet the
interim 2025 fuel poverty target.
Adam Scorer, NEA’s chief executive,
said eff orts to tackle energy effi ciency
are “fl at lining”, adding: “It is impor-
tant that government recognises that
we are off track. Unless it commits
greater central investment to improve
the homes of the fuel poor, fuel pov-
erty targets will be meaningless and
ambitions to achieve net zero carbon
will be fanciful.”
The Department for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy is
driving £6bn into energy effi ciency
and £300m to reduce winter energy
bills for 2m low-income households
every year. It has also capped the price
of standard energy tariff s.
But the NEA said that at this rate it
would take 96 years for the govern-
ment to reach its own targets to reduce
fuel poverty.
Government fi gures published last
week revealed that eff orts to end fuel
poverty and energy waste by making
the UK’s draughty homes more effi -
cient had fallen by almost 85%. The
report showed the number of energy
effi ciency upgrades slumped to an
average of 10,000 a month for the six
months to the end of May, less than a
sixth of the upgrades begun in 2014.
Lower energy bills for extra 1m
homes as poverty target widens
▲ A protester during a demonstration
outside NPower offi ces in central
London against the big energy fi rms
3.66m
Millions of households in England
to be classed as fuel poor and able to
claim for energy effi ciency measures
Sean Farrell
The Serious Fraud Offi ce (SFO)is inves-
tigating the world’s biggest printer of
banknotes over suspected corruption
in South Sudan.
The SFO said it was examining how
the UK company De La Rue, which pro-
duces notes for the Bank of England ,
and associated individuals conducted
business in the African country.
De La Rue said it was cooperating
with the SFO, which investigates seri-
ous fraud, bribery and corruption. The
Basingstoke-based company and the
SFO declined to give further details
about the investigation.
“Given the early stage of these mat-
ters, it is not possible to predict reliably
what eff ect their outcome may have on
De La Rue,” the company said.
De La Rue has done business with
South Sudan since the country was
established in 2011, designing and
printing the country’s banknotes. The
company produces notes for countries
around the globe and is also the big-
gest commercial printer of passports.
The SFO’s attention adds to
problems for De La Rue, which is
looking for a new boss after Martin
Sutherland agreed to leave following
two profi t warnings and the loss of a
£490m contract to print the UK’s post-
Brexit blue passport.
De La Rue shares closed down 16%
at 251p on Tuesday. The shares have
more than halved in the past year as
the company has suff ered poor trading
and a series of setbacks. The 206-year-
old fi rm reported a 77% drop in annual
profi t in May and said profi t would fall
further this year as it faced tough com-
petition. After losing out to a foreign
rival to print the new UK passport,
Sutherland said the decision risked
jobs and that he would appeal but gave
up a month later.
De La Rue’s chairman, Philip
Graham Rogerson , will step down once
Sutherland’s replacement is found.
The company’s senior independent
director has also said he will quit by
the end of 2019.
Rogerson and De La Rue’s board
will face unhappy shareholders at
its AGM meeting on Thursday. Last
week the company rejected a call by
its third-biggest shareholder Crystal
Amber for Rogerson to stand down at
the AGM.
The SFO has investigated De La Rue
twice in the past 12 years. In 2010 it
notifi ed the SFO that some employ-
ees had falsifi ed paper specifi cation
certifi cates , costing it at least £35m.
Another investigation launched in
2007 was closed with no action taken
against the company or employees.
De La Rue corruption claims
in South Sudan investigated
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15.8%
The percentage De La Rue shares fell
by yesterday, to 251p. Shares have
more than halved in the past year
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