The British Gas Energy Trust has written to the Prime Minister calling for a place-based national plan to end fuel poverty, accompanied by a policy paper setting out five priorities for government action. The Trust’s intervention comes after a year in which it supported more than 72,000 individuals and distributed over £14.3 million in grants, while helping households manage or write off tens of millions of pounds in energy debt. The letter frames tackling fuel poverty not as a cost to the Exchequer but as a route to economic growth, improved public health and reduced strain on public services. Full details of the proposal are set out in the Trust’s policy paper.
A Defining Opportunity
The Trust’s letter positions fuel poverty as one of the most significant barriers preventing households across Britain from raising their living standards. Millions continue to struggle with unaffordable energy costs, and the Trust argues that Government now has what it calls a “defining opportunity” to treat the issue as a national mission rather than a peripheral policy concern.
That framing ties directly into the Government’s stated ambitions for economic growth and healthier communities. By linking fuel poverty reduction to broader outcomes, the Trust is asking ministers to see warm homes policy as central to, rather than separate from, wider growth and wellbeing agendas.
Evidence From The Frontline
The scale of need identified by the Trust is drawn from its network of funded partners working directly with households in crisis. In 2025 alone, the organisation supported more than 72,000 individuals and distributed over £14.3 million in grants, alongside helping families manage or write off tens of millions of pounds in energy debt.
According to the Trust, programmes that combine debt relief with advice and community-based support produce lasting improvements in financial stability and wellbeing, rather than short-term relief alone. This evidence base underpins the case for the five priorities set out in the accompanying policy paper.
Five National Priorities
The Trust’s proposal to Government rests on five measures. These are: adopting a national mission to end fuel poverty backed by cross-government leadership and accountability; delivering an energy affordability guarantee through a social tariff and a national energy debt strategy; ensuring every household can access a warm, energy-efficient home through long-term investment in housing and retrofit; empowering local leaders to deliver place-based solutions tailored to community needs; and investing in trusted community organisations that provide advice, support and crisis prevention services.
Taken together, the priorities move beyond emergency support towards structural change, spanning energy pricing, housing quality, local delivery and the voluntary sector infrastructure that reaches households before crises escalate.
Beyond An Energy Issue
The Trust is explicit that fuel poverty cannot be solved by energy policy alone. It describes the problem as sitting at the intersection of income, housing, health and inequality, warning that without coordinated national action, millions of people will remain locked out of economic participation while demand on the NHS and local services continues to climb.
To address that complexity, the Trust is calling for partnership between Government, industry, local leaders and the voluntary sector, arguing that ending fuel poverty should be treated as an investment in the country’s future rather than a line item of expenditure.
A Generational Ambition
The Trust’s ask to the new Prime Minister is unambiguous in its scale: with sustained leadership and cross-sector commitment, it believes ending fuel poverty within a generation could stand as one of the defining achievements of this Parliament. Whether that ambition translates into policy will depend on how Government responds to a plan that ties warm homes directly to growth, health and the resilience of local communities. For an organisation built on frontline evidence of debt, hardship and recovery, the letter marks an attempt to move fuel poverty from the margins of policy debate to the centre of the national agenda.
