Government's one-off fuel payments shelved
Updated on 04 September 2008
The government's fuel voucher scheme is abandoned as another prelaunch attempt collapses into the mire.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown is in Glasgow tonight, preparing to give a major speech on energy policy to the Scottish CBI.
But his efforts to appear in control of the economy are being undermined by the news this evening that government plans to tackle rising fuel bills with one-off payments to families have been shelved.
This programme and others have reported over the past couple of weeks that the government was intending a payment of between £50 and £100 to go to families in need.
The government's new fuel poverty adviser Derek Lickorish told us money to fund the payment could be raised by auctioning more permits to allow business to discharge carbon.
He even talked about who the payment should go to. Now it seems there will be no payment at all. Our political correspondent Cathy Newman is in Glasgow.
