Elderly Arthur Church huddles next to his gas fire to keep the chill off his bones, writes PAUL HARRIS.

It is spring, but his home has no central heating and the 89-year-old has to ration his gas money or face eating into his grocery money to keep warm.

It sounds like a scene from pre-war Britain. But today there remain eight million households in the UK - with hundreds in Oxfordshire - facing this stark reality.

Mr Church, of Ridgefield Road, east Oxford, said: "I have to be careful, I could not have the fire on all the time. I have only got the gas fire on in the living room, and when it is very cold I put the electric fire on upstairs.

"I have got to be economical with it. I am home most of the time."

Michael Hugh-Jones, secretary of the Oxfordshire Pensioners' Action Group, knows Arthur well. "All he can really do is sit by his one bar electric fire all day. I am worried whether he will survive this year. I know he is rather short of money," he said.

A survey out today by Friends of the Earth calculates that 1,318 pensioners will die before the next election through winter 'fuel poverty' - defined as the inability to heat a home to a level that is 'comfortable and healthy'.

The World Health Organisation says this is normally 21C in a living room and 18C in the rest of the house.

The survey said in Oxford West and Abingdon 239 pensioners will die; in Banbury and Bicester 233; in Witney 221; in Wantage 216; in Oxford East 209; and in Henley 200 will die.

Mary Daniel, director of Age Concern Oxfordshire, has a solution. She said: "The first priority is to increase pensioners' incomes: Age Concern believes older people need a minimum weekly income of £150.

She also wants the Government to increase resources to renovate homes and offer advice to pensioners needing repairs.

The Government's latest payout also fails to tackle the energy efficiency of housing stock.

Trade Secretary Stephen Byers said last month: "Simply shovelling money at people to heat the skies above our towns and cities is hardly a sustainable use of resources in the long term. Old people and children are particularly vulnerable to the effects of cold homes. Thousands die each year.

The cost to the NHS to treat them is an astronomical £1bn a year.

Oxfordshire Health Authority's Steve Argent said: "We are concerned about the number of people who die each year over winter, and we are doing our utmost to ensure that as many as possible who qualify for flu vaccines are offered them."

Friends of the Earth today promoted three Parliamentary bills, which they argue, would end deaths caused by fuel poverty. They are:

The Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Bill

The Health Care and Energy Efficiency Bill

The Fuel Poverty and Energy Conservation Bill.

The Warm Homes Bill is promoted by a cross party group of MPs and would require the Government to organise a rolling programme of energy efficiency work on half a million homes every year for 15 years.

The costs per home would be about £2,500, but campaigners insist the scheme would create almost 30,000 new jobs, and cut NHS and public sector housing maintenance bills.

Friends of the Earth Parliamentary co-ordinator Ron Bailey said: "The shocking truth is that Britain has the worst record on fuel poverty and winter deaths in Europe. Every winter up to 50,000 people die because we cannot find the political will to tackle the problem.

Robert Jackson, Tory MP for Wantage, supported an early day motion on the Warm Homes Bill. He said: "Avoidable deaths should be avoided. If better conservation measures will help, then I am certainly willing to support them."

But he said of the survey: "Given that early day motions are random it is not particularly fair.

Evan Harris, MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, supported all three of the motions for the bills. All the other Oxfordshire MPs did not sign them.

*The winter death figures were calculated by dividing the number of winter deaths in the county between the Parliamentary constituencies, weighted according to population.

Story date: Thursday 18 March

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