COUNCILLORS are calling on MPs to back energy saving plans which would help the elderly and poorer households.

A private members bill proposed making homes more energy efficient and offering vulnerable households lower fuel prices until their homes are improved.

However, the new law was rejected at its second reading in the House of Commons, on March 20.

MP for Lewisham Deptford Joan Ruddock was slammed for voting against the bill and accused of not fulfilling her role as the Government’s energy and climate change minister.

At a Lewisham Council meeting last Wednesday (April 22) councillors passed a Green Party motion calling on MPs to support the bill when it returns to the Commons on June 12.

Green councillor Sue Luxton, who proposed the motion, said: “I hope Joan Ruddock and her colleagues listen to this call from Lewisham Council that they should support the fuel poverty bill.

“In these tough times the most vulnerable should be our top priority, and no pensioner or struggling family should have to choose between eating and heating.”

The bill is also backed by charities Help the Aged and Age Concern, and Lewisham Mayor Sir Steve Bullock will now have to write to all three MPs in Lewisham, despite personally voting against the motion along with other Labour councillors.

The Association for the Conservation of Energy estimates that 3,407 elderly people in Ms Ruddock’s constituency live in one room during the winter months to save money on heating their home.

The campaign group also claims 2,555 elderly people stay in bed to keep warm, and 1,022 have to make the choice between heating their home or eating properly.

Defending her decision not to back the bill last month, Ms Ruddock said the Government already has a fuel poverty strategy in place which includes winter fuel payments, insulation for energy efficiency and installing central heating in poorer homes where none exist at present.

She said: “The proposed bill was uncosted, unrealistic and cut across everything the Government is already doing.”