United Kingdom
Fuel poverty
Key points
- 1.5 million households in England were classified as being in fuel poverty in 2005, somewhat higher than in 2004 (1.2 million) but much lower than a decade ago (5 million).
- Fuel poverty is most common among those live in private rented accommodation: 9% of households in private rented accommodation compared to 6% in other tenures.
- Despite their much lower average incomes, those in social rented accommodation are no more likely to be in fuel poverty than owner-occupiers. This is because very little social housing is energy inefficient (see the indicator on energy efficiency) and requires relatively little fuel to keep it warm.
- Most households in fuel poverty have low incomes (80% of those in fuel poverty are in the poorest fifth of households). But most households on low incomes are not in fuel poverty (75% of the poorest fifth of households are not in fuel poverty). Rather, in broad terms, households are only at a high risk of fuel poverty if they have both low incomes and very energy inefficient homes.
- Within England, fuel poverty is most prevalent in the North East.
Graph 1: Over time
View Graph as PDF Right click to save large version of Graph as PNG
Graph 2: By tenure
View Graph as PDF Right click to save large version of Graph as PNG
Graph 3: By income and energy efficiency
View Graph as PDF Right click to save large version of Graph as PNG
Graph 4: By region
View Graph as PDF Right click to save large version of Graph as PNG
Why this indicator was originally chosen
People who are in fuel poverty are either paying a high proportion of their income for the essential purposes of keeping their homes warm, cooking, etc or are not using the amounts of fuel that are required to keep their home in a satisfactory living condition.
Definitions and data sources
The first graph shows the number of households deemed to be in 'fuel poverty', with the data shown separately by tenure.
The second graph shows the proportion of households in fuel poverty in each tenure.
The third graph shows how the proportion of households that are in fuel poverty varies by combinations of the income of household and the energy efficiency of the home. For the definitions of energy efficient homes, see the indicator on energy efficiency. Note that the allocation of households to below-average and above-average incomes uses 'equivalised household income', which means that the household incomes have been adjusted to put them on a like-for-like basis given the size and composition of the households. This means that the results are somewhat different than those in some other publications which use unadjusted household incomes.
The fourth graph shows how the proportion of households in fuel poverty varies by region.
Households are considered to be in 'fuel poverty' if they would have to spend more than 10% of their household income on fuel to keep their home in a 'satisfactory' condition, where, for example, a 'satisfactory' heating regime is considered to be one where the main living area is at 21 degrees centigrade with 18 degrees centigrade in the other occupied rooms. It is thus a measure which compares income with what the fuel costs should be rather than what they actually are. Household income is disposable household income before deducting housing costs. The fuel costs included comprise that used for space heating, water heating, lighting, cooking and household appliances.
The data source for all the graphs is the English House Condition Survey (EHCS) and relates to England. The 1996 data in the first graph has been amended by the government from the original EHCS estimate of 4.3 million to take account of DTI gas and electricity bill data and is taken from the 3rd Annual progress report of the UK fuel poverty strategy. To improve their statistical reliability, the data is the second, third and fourth graphs is the average for the latest three years.
Overall adequacy of the indicator: medium. EHCS is a well-established, regular government survey, designed to be nationally representative, but the calculation of required fuel costs is both complex and obscure.
External links
- For a wide-ranging discussion of all aspects of housing, including its links with poverty, see the New Policy Institute 2006 report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation entitled Housing and neighbourhoods monitor.
- See the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report entitled Cold comfort: The social and environmental determinants of excess winter deaths in England.
- See Imperial College research on the links between poor housing and poor health.
- See the Energy Saving Trust report entitled Health impact evaluation of Warm Front.
- See the ofgem 2005 social action strategy.
- See the National Energy Action site.
- See the eaga partnership site.
- See the Department for Business Enterprise & Regulatory Reform fuel poverty website and the DEFRA fuel poverty website.
Relevant 2007 Public Service Agreements
Overall aim: Increase long-term housing supply and affordability
Lead department
Department for Communities and Local Government
Official national targets
Increase the number of net additional homes provided per annum to 240,000 by 2016.
Increase the number of gross affordable homes provided per annum to 70,000 by 2010-11 including 45,000 social homes.
Halve the number of households in temporary accommodation to 50,500 households by 2010.
By March 2011, 80% of local planning authorities to have adopted the necessary Development Plan Documents, in accordance with their agreed Local Development Scheme.
Other indicators of progress
Trends in affordability.
Efficiency rating of new homes.
Previous 2004 targets
By 2010, bring all social housing into decent condition with most of this improvement taking place in deprived areas, and for vulnerable households in the private sector, including families with children, increase the proportion who live in homes that are in decent condition.
Eliminate fuel poverty in vulnerable households in England by 2010 in line with the Government's Fuel Poverty Strategy objective Joint with the department for Trade and Industry.
Relevant government policies
The numbers
Graph 1
| Millions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private rented | Social rented | Owner occupied | Total | |
| 1996 | not available | not available | not available | 5.1M |
| 2001 | 0.3M | 0.3M | 1.2M | 1.7M |
| 2003 | 0.2M | 0.2M | 0.8M | 1.2M |
| 2004 | 0.2M | 0.2M | 0.8M | 1.2M |
| 2005 | 0.2M | 0.2M | 1.1M | 1.5M |
Graph 2
| Millions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Private rented | Social rented | Owner occupied |
| 9% | 6% | 6% |
Graph 3
| In a very energy inefficient home | Not in very energy inefficient home | |
|---|---|---|
| In the poorest fifth | 79% | 19% |
| Not in the poorest fifth | 11% | 0% |
Graph 4
| East | 6% |
|---|---|
| East Midlands | 7% |
| London | 4% |
| North East | 10% |
| North West | 7% |
| South East | 4% |
| South West | 7% |
| West Midlands | 8% |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 8% |