Rural England
Energy inefficient homes
Key points
- The proportion of dwellings which are very energy inefficient is much higher in rural areas than in urban areas, and is highest in the most rural areas: 50% in the most rural areas and 25% in village centres compared with 7% in urban areas.
- See the UK indicator on energy inefficient homes.
Graph 1: Compared to urban
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Rural/urban ratios (urban = 10)
On most poverty and social exclusion indicators, rural areas have 'better scores' than urban areas. The purpose of the table below is to differentiate between those subjects where rural areas are 'a bit better' and those where rural areas are 'a lot better'. It does so by presenting the rural statistics for the indicator as a proportion of the urban statistics. So, for example, a rural 'score' of 6 in the table below means that the rural statistic is around 60% of its urban equivalent.
| The most rural areas | 75 |
|---|---|
| Village centres | 35 |
| Rural residential | 20 |
Definitions and data sources
The graphs
The graph shows the proportion of homes by type of area which are very energy inefficient. The energy efficiency of a home is measured using something called the 'Standard Assessment Procedure' (SAP) rating. SAP ratings range from 0 to 100, with the higher the rating the more energy efficient the home. Following advice from DCLG, the threshold used to define 'very energy inefficient' homes is those which have a SAP rating of less than 30. Note that in 2005 DCLG made some technical changes to how it calculated the SAP ratings and, as a result, the data is somewhat different than previously published figures.
Level of the data
Small area urban/rural classifications, where the surveyor of the property allocates it to one of six categories, three of which are rural. Note that this classification is specific to the English House Condition Survey and is not the same as the government's 2004 classification system for small areas.
Source
English House Condition Survey, DCLG. To improve its statistical reliability, the data is the average for the latest three years.
The numbers
| The most rural areas | 59% |
|---|---|
| Village centres | 23% |
| Rural residential | 13% |
| Rural (combined) | 21% |
| Urban | 7% |