What is fuel poverty?
Fuel poverty in England is measured statistically using the Low Income High Costs definition, under which a household is considered to be in fuel poverty if:
- they have required fuel costs that are above average (the national median spend on fuel)
- they were to spend that amount they would be left with a residual income below the official poverty line
Whether or not a household is affected by fuel poverty is largely determined by:
- the energy efficiency of the property
- the cost of energy
- the household income
Incidence of fuel poverty in England
Each year the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) provides detailed information about the incidence and extent of fuel poverty in England.
Please see the DECC webpage Fuel Poverty Statistics for further information. You can also download the 2015 fuel poverty report . The most recent statistics available are for 2013 and show that approximately 2.35 million English households were in fuel poverty, a figure broadly unchanged from the 2.36 million in fuel poverty in 2012.
In England, fuel poverty is modelled using data from the English Housing Survey, which is an annual national survey of people's housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England. Please see the Department for Communities and Local Government's English Housing Survey webpage for full details.
The two key components of the English Housing Survey for fuel poverty modelling are:
- the interview survey with the householders living in the dwelling
- the survey of the physical features and condition of the dwelling
In 2013 around 13,276 households took part in the interview survey and of these households around half were selected for the follow up physical survey element which involves a detailed inspection of the property by a qualified surveyor. To boost the sample size two years' worth of EHS data (from the physical element) are combined. For the 2013 data, this covers the period between April 2012 and March 2014 and comprises around 12,000 households.
Therefore the annual fuel poverty data is a combination of two consecutive years' worth of data - 2012/13 and 2013/14.
Incidence of fuel poverty in Haringey
As well as publishing data on fuel poverty for England as a whole, the Department of Energy and Climate change also produces a set of sub-regional statistics. Please see the DECC webpage fuel poverty sub-regional statistics for more information. This data complements the data for England by estimating the number and proportion of fuel poor households at smaller geographical areas; Local Authority, Parliamentary Constituency and Lower Super Output Area.
According to the data published in May 2015:
- in Haringey, there are 12,399 fuel poor households out of a total of 103,875 (11.9%)
- incidence of fuel poverty by lower super output area varies from 3.3% of households to 21.7% of households
- in Hornsey and Wood Green, there are 5,539 fuel poor households out of a total of 54,068 (10.2%)
- in Tottenham, there are 6,860 fuel poor households out of a total of 49,807 (13.8%)
Using the data published by the former Department of Energy and Climate Change (now Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) we have produced the following two tables to show the incidence in fuel poverty for each lower super output area in Haringey and also to show levels of fuel poverty for each London borough:
Fuel poverty in Haringey by lower super output area
Fuel poverty by London borough
The causes of fuel poverty
Fuel poverty is caused by:
- inadequate access to information
- inefficient heating systems
- inadequate insulation
- poor housing stock
- high fuel prices
Who is affected by fuel poverty?
The likelihood of being fuel poor increases markedly for households living in homes that are not very energy efficient. Household energy efficiency is typically measured using the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) to give a numerical value of between 1 and 100 with homes then being rated A to G dependent on their score. Homes in band A have a numerical rating of between 92 and 100 and homes in Band G have a numerical rating of between 1 and 20. In 2013 31 per cent of households living in G rated properties were in fuel poverty as opposed to just two per cent of households living in properties with SAP ratings of A to C.
Households living in privately rented accommodation typically have the highest fuel poverty rates while owner occupied households have the lowest, a pattern that has been consistent since 2003.
All fuel poor households come from the bottom four income decile groups. In 2013, around 40 per cent of each of the bottom two deciles were fuel poor as were 13 per cent of the third and fourth deciles.
Unemployed households have the highest rates of fuel poverty across all economic activity groups. This pattern has similarly been consistent since 2003, with at least 30 per cent of all unemployed households, but less than 10 per cent of working households in fuel poverty over this time.
Lone parent households have consistently been more likely to be in fuel poverty and in 2013 25 per cent of all such households were fuel poor.
Levels of fuel poverty are also high amongst groups where the youngest member of the household was aged 16-24 and in 2013 23 per cent of all such households were fuel poor.