Northumberland MEP welcomes Warmer Homes Day

12.30.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 21st Oct 2009

Fiona Hall MEP has campaigned on energy efficiency for many years.

Lib Dem Euro-MP Fiona Hall has welcomed today's (Tuesday, 20 October) "Warmer Homes Day" as part of this year's "Energy Saving Week".

Fiona, who is an energy expert in the European Parliament, is currently negotiating with officials from national governments on new rules to improve the energy efficiency of buildings.

Said Fiona:

"We must make sure that when homes are renovated, it is done to standards that will save energy and save people money. We are working to enable new ways of funding energy efficiency improvements for homes to make sure everybody can afford them.

"There is still a considerable lack of funding to help people make their homes more energy efficient and reduce their reliance on fossil fuels. We need to address this urgently at a European as well as national and local level."

Figures obtained by the Liberal Democrats show that one in four social homes in the North East are considered to be substandard with many of these also falling in the category of "fuel poverty" - where more than 10% of annual income is spent on paying fuel bills.

Commenting on the news that regional development agency One North East has released £6m of European funding to support organisations in testing technology designed to make houses more energy efficient, Fiona said:

"I welcome plans by One North East to use £6m from the European Rural Development Fund for investments in green technology for social housing. Investments like this will put the region on the map as a centre for low carbon expertise and help create many new and innovative jobs."

"It is simply not acceptable that so many people in the North East are at risk from fuel poverty," Fiona added.

The 13th Energy Saving Week is hosted by the Energy Saving Trust and will take place from 19-25th October.

The theme of this year's Energy Saving Week is WASTE - with the declared aim to help people across the UK to stop WASTING their TIME, MONEY and ENERGY.