Help for fuel poor announced

The government set out on Friday extra measures to help the poor and boost energy efficiency in the face of rocketing fuel prices.

Booming oil and energy prices are adding to the headaches for Prime Minister Gordon Brown whose future is under threat due to a faltering economy, a mess-up on tax changes and Labour's mauling in recent elections.

From energy suppliers sharing data to more help for home insulation and microgeneration and an information campaign the new measures are aimed at those in fuel poverty - households where more than 10 percent of income goes on energy bills.

"Bills are rising and purse strings are tightening. Encouraging energy efficiency is crucial because it really does cut costs - especially for those who can least afford energy price hikes," said Environment Minister Phil Woolas.

"These new measures will make homes across the country more energy efficient and give people at risk of fuel poverty a boost where they need it most."

Far from halving fuel poverty as the government promised, it has doubled since 2004 and shows no sign of declining again in the near future.

Gas and electricity prices have surged 15 percent already this year and are predicted to jump by up to 45 percent over the year as crude oil prices have jumped to over $133 a barrel at one stage due to booming demand from countries like China.

There has been at least one suggestion that crude could hit $200 a barrel, although there have also been suspicions that the underlying supply and demand mismatch may be being exacerbated by speculators.

Brown on Wednesday announced measures to help lift supplies from the North Sea but said the surging prices were a global problem than needed a global response.

He promised to raise the issue at the group of eight industrialised nations summit in Japan in early July.

Environmental campaigners fear that the political and economic pressure due to the energy crisis might undermine efforts to combat climate change due to the burning of fossil fuels for power and transport.

Jim Watson of the Sussex University's Energy Group noted that the oil price hikes of the 1970s and 1980s did little to wean the world off oil but did result in rapid developments in energy efficiency.

"It did not wean us off oil," he told Reuters. "It did go down a bit in the G8 economies - particularly in France which went for strategic nuclear build - and there were falls in the rate of increase elsewhere but only for a few years."

He said the real danger of the current price spike and economic slowdowns was that they would make countries more introspective and less willing to commit to concerted international action on the climate.