How addressing one can help solve the other.

We have snow! Some of us are excited by the prospect of snowball wars and snug evenings by the fires. Others, however, are literally freezing and no amount of jumpers and hot water bottles are going to make life comfortable.

Fuel poverty occurs when a household spends more than 10% of its income on fuel to maintain an adequate level of warmth. 'Adequate' is officially 21 degrees for the main living area and 18 degrees for other rooms in the home.

It is estimated that 5.5 million UK households currently suffer fuel poverty and Government is seeking to address this with a number of policies. In 2009, 12.5 million people received one off, tax free payments towards their winter heating bills and one would logically assume that those experiencing fuel poverty would have been the primary recipients. That people like Peter Stringfellow are eligible, however, suggests that this may not have been the case.

The Energy Act 2010 is pushing energy suppliers to help the vulnerable fuel-poor directly, and the Warm Front Scheme is soon to be replaced with the Department of Energy & Climate Change’s Green Deal. Despite having some inevitable and positive impact on fuel poverty, Green Deal is in fact designed to help us meet legally binding carbon reduction targets through improved insulation.

There are other options to reduce the high numbers of fuel-poor households, and some are being explored at a more local level. Kirklees Warm Zone, for example, visited 133,000 houses and insulated 46,000 of them without charge. Another scheme funded by Kirklees Council was RE-Charge, offering loans of up to £10,000 to home owners to install renewable energy and low carbon technologies on their property.

Other councils address fuel poverty, cunningly disguising it as sexier climate change campaigns. The Chair of Camden Council's Sustainability Task Force, for example, championed the Passivhaus standard. Originating in Germany, Passivhaus buildings are now commonplace across both Europe and America and are only just beginning to pop up across our own green country. So energy efficient is this standard that buildings don't require heating or air conditioning at any time of the year, which reduces the average house's energy consumption by around 85%. Currently showcased in the form of architect designed homes, this standard can and should be applied more often in the form of retrofit.

All these schemes are marketed as tools to address either climate change or fuel poverty. It so happens that each one serendipitously benefits the other’s agenda. The messages these initiatives send out, as well as the financial benefits, could apply to everyone. Tax free loans for insulation, for example, save energy supplies, reduce our carbon footprint, keep us warmer and would even boost local business. Why disguise them under just one heading? We should all be encouraged to put on an extra jumper and turn down the heating to save money, preserve insecure energy supplies and protect our planet.

For the record, Mr Stringfellow has politely offered to return the money and stated that if the money hasn't been taken back within a month it will be donated to the Help For Heroes charity. It seems he has enough to keep him warm over the coming months.