In early 2013, ACE Research and the Energy Bill Revolution published a fact-file on families and fuel poverty. This new briefing serves to update last year’s headline figures for the number of households, people, families, and children in fuel poverty to 2014. It does so for the UK, as well as for the devolved nations where appropriate.
There are now two high-level fuel poverty definitions in use in the UK. The original definition, that of a household having to spend over 10% of its disposable income to pay for adequate energy services, has (with minor variations) been retained in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. Although the Department of Energy and Climate Change still report fuel poverty in England against this definition, it has now formally adopted a new definition of fuel poverty in England, based on the recommendations of the Hills Review into the measurement of fuel poverty.
This briefing provides estimates for the level of fuel poverty (under the original definition) at the start of 2014 for the UK and its nations. In addition, it provides an estimate for fuel poverty under the new definition in England. The following factors make a 2014 update on last year’s estimates pertinent:
- Energy suppliers announced significant price rises at the end of 2013. Some of these price rises have been claimed by suppliers to be smaller than they otherwise would have been, as they have pre-empted Government reductions to ‘green levies’. Government proposals for reducing levies were made subsequent to the price rises at the end of 2013;
- The rate at which energy bill-reducing measures are being delivered slowed down considerably in 2013 compared to previous years;
- And average real earnings have remained largely flat
Energy prices, energy performance of housing and incomes are the three factors that together determine the level, depth, and nature of fuel poverty, whichever definition is used. The estimates in this briefing compare the state of fuel poverty now to that of 12 months ago, and to 2011, the year for which the latest official estimates of fuel poverty are available.
Tags: Fuel Poverty
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