Cold comfort for Britain's children

Fuel poverty - choosing whether to heat or eat - is an issue in every fourth household in this country, but campaigners often focus on older people and not on families and children.

This week the balance was redressed and fuel poverty alliance Energy Bill Revolution came out with a hard-hitting report which showed an extra one in every 11 British children has fallen into fuel poverty over the last three years.

That brings the number to 1.6 million - 130,000 more than in 2010 - a statistic which children's charity Barnardo's calls a "disgrace."

It called on the government to tackle "this national crisis."

The number of children living in fuel poverty has risen 9 per cent over three years. In total 930,000 families are affected. In England, the largest numbers of children in fuel poverty live in the north-west, London and the West Midlands.

What's caused the crisis? Gas, oil and coal prices are high - and the energy privateers keep raising them. And the nation's homes are some of the most energy-inefficient in Europe, leaking heat from doors, walls and windows.

On average at least 7,800 people die every year from living in cold homes, more than four times the number of people who die on the roads.

To pay their energy bills many families quite simply cut back on essentials such as heating and food. And funding to help fuel-poor families with children has been cut by 27 per cent since the Con-Dems came to power.

Until now the scale of the problem for families has been poorly understood, but Energy Bill Revolution's report quoted front-line evidence from Barnardo's showing that over 90 per cent of the charity's staff have worked with families in fuel debt.

The alliance said the answer is for David Cameron to "end the growing scandal of cold homes" by using carbon taxes to make all homes in Britain energy efficient.

Director Ed Matthew said: "The only permanent solution to the fuel poverty crisis is for the government to invest in a nationwide programme of super-insulation funded by carbon tax which could end fuel poverty once and for all."

But details from the report make sober reading.

They're the hidden, subtle long-term effects of the back-of-the-fag-packet policies Tories are so fond of.

Schemes which appeal to the party's paymasters but cut like a knife into each child trying to make sense of life.

Long-term exposure to a cold home can affect weight gain in babies and young children, push up hospital admission rates for children and increase the severity and frequency of asthmatic symptoms.

Children in cold homes are more than twice as likely to suffer from breathing problems and those in damp and mouldy homes are up to three times more likely to suffer from coughing, wheezing and respiratory illness, compared to those with warm, dry homes.

Not surprisingly, struggles with high energy bills harm the mental health of family members and that can have a direct effect on children's education.

Health problems can keep them off school. And a cold home means there is no warm, separate room to do homework.

Children living in privately rented accommodation are worst hit - the problem compounded by housing costs being typically much higher when renting privately. Perhaps another reason for more social housing provision.

As Barnardo's assistant director of policy and research Neera Sharma says: "It's a disgrace that not only has so little action been taken to bring down energy bills, but nothing is being done to stop them rising further for the poorest families."