Fuel poverty court bid dismissed

Campaigners failed in a High Court bid to force the Government to spend more to end fuel poverty.

A senior judge ruled that Government departments were not legally obliged to take action "whatever the cost".

Mr Justice McCombe, sitting in London, dismissed an application for judicial review brought by Friends of the Earth and Help the Aged to force the Government to meet targets for helping millions of vulnerable citizens who cannot heat their homes adequately.

The pressure groups said fuel poverty was "a blight upon society" and five million households are expected to be suffering its consequences this winter. Later they called on the Government to do more to help "the fuel poor", even though they lost their legal challenge.

A fuel poverty strategy was introduced under the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000 with the stated intention of doing everything "reasonably practicable" to end fuel poverty among vulnerable households by 2010 and in all households in England by 2016.

Critics accused the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Secretary of State for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) of taking insufficient measures to meet their commitments and said the courts should intervene.

Government lawyers argued the departments were doing their best in the face of budgetary constraints and dramatic increases in energy prices, and there had been no breach of legal duty.

Mr Justice McCombe said the Government had taken up the challenge to eliminate fuel poverty by specifying that it would try, so far as reasonably practicable, to achieve the targets.

Later Friends of the Earth's head of UK climate Ed Matthew said: "The High Court's decision reveals a huge loophole in the legal protection for people in fuel poverty - big enough for over millions of households to fall through.

"We need a proper plan that makes sure that every home struggling to keep warm is properly insulated - this will lift people from fuel poverty and cut carbon emissions at the same time."