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Households are considered by the Government
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. It is thus a measure which compares income with what the fuel costs
'should be' rather than what they actually are. Whether a household is in
fuel poverty or not is determined by the interaction of a number of factors,
but the three obvious ones are:
o
The cost of energy.
o
The energy efficiency of the property (and
therefore, the energy required to heat and power the home)
o
Household income.
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All the points below relate to England
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4.0 million
households in England
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Fuel poverty is most common among those live
in private rented accommodation: averaging from 2007 to 2009, 20% of households in private rented accommodation were in
fuel poverty compared to around 15% in other tenures.
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Despite their much lower average incomes,
those in social rented accommodation are only a bit more likely to be in fuel
poverty than owner-occupiers. This is partly because very little social
housing is energy inefficient (see the indicator on energy
efficiency) and partly because social housing tends to be small, both
factors meaning that relatively little fuel is required to keep the home warm.
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Analysis of the relationship between fuel
poverty and household income depends in part on whether the household incomes
are analysed before or after deducting housing costs. 1 A further complication is that the relationship changes when levels
of fuel poverty change substantially, as they have done in the last few
years. In this context, the focus of the points below is on the the
qualitative patterns rather than the quantitative proportions.
Furthermore, in keeping with the approach used throughout this website, all the
quantitative points relate to households grouped according to their incomes
after, rather than before, deducting housing costs.
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The risk of fuel poverty rises sharply as
household income falls and, for example, very few households with above-average
incomes are in fuel poverty: averaging across 2007 to 2009, around two-fifths
of households in the poorest fifth after deducting housing costs were in fuel
poverty. Even so, a majority of households in the poorest fifth were not
in fuel poverty and, furthermore, there were a substantial number of households
who are not in the poorest fifth but who are nevertheless in fuel poverty
(around half of the total number in fuel poverty). Clearly, therefore,
there are factors other than household income which affect whether a household
is in fuel poverty or not.
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One such factor is how energy efficient
the home is. For example, households not in the poorest fifth but in very
energy inefficient homes are actually more likely to be in fuel poverty than
households in the poorest fifth but in homes with above-average energy
efficiency. More specifically, averaging across 2007 to 2009, around
two-fifths of households not in the poorest fifth after deducting housing costs
but living in homes with a SAP rating (see the indicator on
energy efficiency for a definition) of less than 30 were in fuel poverty
compared with around a third of households in the poorest fifth but living in
homes with a SAP rating of 50 or above. One result of this is that
households who are both in the poorest fifth and in very energy inefficient
homes are at a very high risk of fuel poverty (85%, averaging across 2007 to
2009).
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A second such factor is the composition of
the household. Single-person households - working-age singles as well as
single pensioners - are more likely to be in fuel poverty than either couples
or larger families. Overall, averaging across 2007 to 2009, around 35%
of single pensioners and 25% of working-age singles were in fuel poverty
compared to around 20% of lone parents (the next highest group), 15% of pensioner
couples, and 5% of working-age couples. Because of their relatively
high risk, half of all the households in fuel poverty in England
·
Among those in low income, single-person
households are also more likely to be in fuel poverty than either couples or
larger families and this applies particularly to working-age singles (rates for
pensioner singles are a bit lower). The analysis in Cold
and poor: an analysis of the link between fuel poverty and low income suggests
that the reason for the high risk of fuel poverty among single-person
households, both overall and among those in low income, is that, whereas their
estimated fuel costs tend to be a bit lower than those for other household
types, their household incomes tends to be a lot lower. In other words,
fuel costs tend to be a bigger burden, relative to incomes, for single-person
households than for larger households.
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Finally,
households in rural areas are more likely to be in fuel poverty than those in
urban areas (averaging across 2007 to 2009, 20% in rural compared with 15% in
urban), with similar proportional differences those in low income (for the
poorest fifth, averaging across 2007 to 2009, 40% in rural compared with 40% in
urban)
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The analysis above suggests that two of the
major groups of concern from a fuel poverty perspective relate to those in low
income who are either single-person households of working age and or who live
in rural areas. This is notable because these two groups have not been
the focus of government's more general anti-poverty strategy, which has tended
to focus on children, older people and deprived urban areas.
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Within England ,
fuel poverty is most prevalent in West Midlands
and the North East.
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