Energy firms urged to alter tariffs

By Emma Sword

Public health experts have called on energy firms to alter their tariffs to reduce the number of deaths related to the cold in winter.

The UK Public Health Association said it was a matter of national shame that winter death rates in the Britain were much higher than in countries such as Scandinavia and urged providers to change how they charge customers in a bid to help vulnerable customers.

The body called for energy firms to charge less for the first units of energy used instead of the reverse under the current system, which sees these units cost more.

It said such changes would help the poorest to manage their fuel bills and reduce the number of deaths from heart attacks, chest infections and strokes.

However providers argued that they spent £150 helping vulnerable customers last year and that such changes put forward by the UK Public Health Association would impact on those vulnerable people who are at home all day.

Professor John Ashton, chairman of the UK Public Health Association, said: "What's happening in a lot of these houses is that you'll have an elderly person, perhaps a widow on their own on a low pension, struggling to keep the house warm."