Friends of the Earth are demanding a government plan on fuel poverty by Friday, or they will ask for a judicial review. The government has cut spending on its Warm Front programme, whilst more than 4.5 million households suffer from fuel poverty (spending more than 10% of net income on electricity and gas), the highest since Labour has been in power.
Last month, officials from Benn's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) asked fuel poverty charity National Energy Action (NEA), for which it provides more than 50 per cent of the funding, to draw up budgets for the next three years, assuming a cut in the government grant of 25 per cent. The NEA advises local and regional authorities and housing associations on fuel poverty, and tests insulation and other energy efficient devices. It also helps compile statistics for the government.
Tony Juniper also points out that £5 million is being cut from Natural England, funding for recycling is being cut by 30%, and that more money will be devoted to incineration.
In 2006, the GDP of the United Kingdom was about £1.16 trillion. Defra's budget this year will be a little short of £4bn, to cover all the different aspects of environmental protection, farming and rural affairs with which it is charged. We have one of the strongest and largest economies in the world. The proportion of our total wealth that is spent by this rather small organ of government is tiny, about 0.4% of GDP. Is that an adequate commitment to the future of our planet?
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