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ARCHIVE: Fuel poverty and energy efficiency

The Government is committed to making the transition to a low carbon economy in all areas, both urban and rural. It wants to help people save money and save the environment by improving energy efficiency and addressing fuel poverty, and is looking to achieve secure, affordable and low carbon energy in the years and decades ahead.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) is responsible for the government’s approach to climate change mitigation and energy policy.

Everyone has a role to play in tackling climate change. Investment in energy efficiency and clean energy technologies provides opportunities for rural areas. Rural areas also present challenges for achieving reduced carbon emissions because of the dispersed nature of rural communities and the older nature of the housing stock.

As part of our responsibilities for promoting rural mainstreaming, Dan Norris, Minister for Rural Affairs in Defra, met with David Kidney, Minister at DECC, on 1 December 2009. The Ministers agreed that it was vital that the needs of rural people should be reflected in all mainstream Government policy-making and delivery, and that every effort should be made to ensure that both existing and new climate change and energy efficiency policies and programmes should be properly rural-proofed.

They also agreed that Defra, DECC and the Commission for Rural Communities should work together to ensure that rural needs are fully addressed. DECC is taking part in a Defra and Commission for Rural Communities pilot and is hosting  a rural champion to work with DECC policy and programme teams up to April 2010.

DECC policies and programmes which benefit rural areas include:

Page last modified: 16 September 2009
Page published: 16 September 2009