Northern Ireland
Fuel poverty
Key points
- Very high rates of fuel poverty are experienced by both households with low income and pensioner households.
- In 2004, 24% of households in Northern Ireland, equivalent to some 150,000 households, were in fuel poverty.
- Those on low incomes were especially at risk of fuel poverty (50% of households with an annual income of under £10,000). 40% of pensioners were in fuel poverty in 2004.
- According to the 2004 data, people renting their home were no more likely to be in fuel poverty than owner occupiers. This is in sharp contrast with the equivalent data for 2001, when renters were around twice as likely as owner occupiers to be in fuel poverty.
- The fall in the fuel poverty rate among social sector households between 2001 and 2004 may in part be due to a fall in the use of previously inefficient fuel sources. This is because, besides the general fall in fuel prices over this period, there appears to have been a big switch away from using solid fuel for central heating in social housing, replacing it with oil or gas. For example, according to the 2004 House Condition Survey, the proportion of housing executive dwellings using a solid fuel burner halved between 2001 and 2004, from 47% to 24%.
Graph 1: By household type
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Definitions and data sources
The graph shows how the estimated proportion of households in Northern Ireland who are in fuel poverty varies by household income, tenure and family type.
Households are considered to be in 'fuel poverty' if they 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. The fuel costs included comprise that used for space heating, water heating, lighting, cooking and household appliances.
The data source is the interim report of the 2004 House Condition Survey from the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.