'Hundreds' die from cold

There were up to 300 deaths in the region, the report says

More people are likely to have died from the recent cold spell in the North West than almost everywhere else in England and Wales, figures published on Tuesday revealed.

The Faculty of Public Health and the Met Office said about 302 people had probably died "unnecessarily" as a result of the cold during the last week.

It said more than 2,500 people across England and Wales would have died in total.

Only the South East - with 410 likely deaths - is believed to have suffered more.

The report blamed the problem on damp and cold housing and is now urging the government to prioritise the problem.

This is a tragedy in terms of human life and also creates a huge - and preventable - strain on the NHS Professor Sian Griffiths, Faculty of Public Health

Most people would have died from cardiovascular and respiratory disease, said the faculty of public health.

It said a higher proportion of the UK population died each winter as a direct result of cold weather than in either Finland or Russia.

Professor Sian Griffiths, the faculty's president, said: "A high proportion of preventable illness and deaths in the UK are caused by people living in damp and cold housing.

"If we see much more of the cold weather of recent days, it is likely that as many as 50,000 people will die unnecessarily over this winter.

Elderly at risk

"This is a tragedy in terms of human life and also creates a huge - and preventable - strain on the NHS."

The faculty said the deaths were the result of fuel poverty, whereby people do not have enough money to spend on heating their homes properly.

A household is considered to be in fuel poverty if it has to spend more than 10% of its income on heating.

The elderly, young and disabled are said to be most at risk with 95% of deaths occurring among the elderly.