DAVID Chaytor has taken the lead in trying to end the scandal of people being unable to heat their homes.

He chaired a top-level conference in London about the Government's new strategy for ending fuel poverty.

The conference was organised by the Parliamentary Warm Homes Group, of which Mr Chaytor is secretary. Its efforts resulted in last year's act which put a legal duty on the Government to produce a strategy for eradicating fuel poverty by 2010. This strategy is now out for consultation.

The conference brought together energy efficiency experts, ministers and MPs for a "brainstorming" session. Among them were environment minister Michael Meacher and energy minister Peter Hain. Mr Chaytor said that the Government's new strategy was the most ambitious of its kind that had ever been undertaken.

"There are 4.5 million affected households in Britain, of which three million are considered "vulnerable", that is, they contain pensioners, children or someone who is disabled or has a long-term illness," said Mr Chaytor, who is defending his Bury North seat for Labour.

"The Government's aim is to make sure that, by 2010, no vulnerable household need risk ill health or death because of a cold home. This will mean that thousands more homes in Bury North will be taken out of the fuel poverty trap in the decade ahead."

Mr Chaytor said that hundreds of local pensioners had benefited from home insulation and other energy efficiency measures. The Government had also introduced the £200 winter fuel payment and cut VAT on fuel.