Fuel poverty will kill thousands of pensioners this winter
Published: Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 11:57AM
By Dr Stirling Howieson
If the recent hikes in the real cost of fuel cannot be reversed before winter sets in, the impact on the elderly fuel poor will result in an additional 20,000 excess deaths.
This is on top of the 23,900 excess winter deaths registered during the winter of 2006/07.
The UK has one of the highest excess winter deaths rates in the world.
Put simply the elderly fuel poor are dying prematurely because they live in cold damp homes.
Sleeping in cold bedrooms will cause this group to die prematurely from heart attacks, stroke and respiratory infections.
The work undertaken in this field by a variety of university research teams has produced clear conclusions.
These deaths are essentially preventable if the elderly can be kept warm during the winter.
Although insulating the housing stock is the only long term and cost effective solution, a short term palliative can be found by re-directing the current winter fuel payment allowance exclusively towards the elderly fuel poor.
The government must act now if these deaths are to be prevented. If they do not they should be held to account for what amounts to nothing less than gross negligence and manslaughter.
Dr Stirling Howieson is the director of the Centre for Environmental Design and Research. He has spent the last 25 years researching the impact of the built environment on public health.