At the Spending Review in October 2010 the Government announced
it would commission an independent review to take a fresh look
at the fuel poverty target and definition. The Government wishes
to focus its available resources where they will be most
effective in tackling the problems underlying fuel poverty. On
14 March 2011 the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate
Change, Chris Huhne MP, announced that Professor John Hills had
been requested to undertake this review. The Warm Homes and
Energy Conservation Act 2000 required the publication of a
strategy setting out policies to ensure that as far as
reasonably practicable no-one lives in fuel poverty. In 2001,
the Government published its Fuel Poverty Strategy for England.
This Strategy defined a fuel poor household as one which needs
to spend more than 10% of its income on all fuel use and to heat
its home to an adequate standard of warmth. This is generally
defined as 21°C in the living room and 18°C in other occupied
rooms. The strategy also set an inte