Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The English Housing Survey (EHS) Fuel Poverty Datasets are comprised of fuel poverty variables derived from the EHS, and a number of EHS variables commonly used in fuel poverty reporting. The EHS is a continuous national survey commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government (MHCLG) that collects information about people's housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England.

Safeguarded and Special Licence Versions
Similar to the main EHS, two versions of the Fuel Poverty dataset are available from 2014 onwards. The Special Licence version contains additional, more detailed, variables, and is therefore subject to more restrictive access conditions. Users should check the Safeguarded Licence (previously known as End User Licence (EUL)) version first to see whether it meets their needs, before making an application for the Special Licence version.

The English Housing Survey: Fuel Poverty Dataset, 2022: Special Licence is the outcome of analysis conducted to produce estimates of fuel poverty in England in 2022 undertaken by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ).

Fuel poverty in England is measured using the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) indicator, which considers a household to be fuel poor if:

• it is living in a property with an energy efficiency rating of band D, E, F or G as determined by the most up-to-date Fuel Poverty Energy Efficiency Rating (FPEER) Methodology; and
• its disposable income (income after housing costs (AHC) and energy costs) would be below the poverty line. The poverty line (income poverty) is defined as an equivalised disposable income of less than 60 per cent of the national median in Section 2 of the ONS publication 'Persistent poverty in the UK and EU: 2017'.

The Low Income Low Energy Efficiency model is a dual indicator, which allows us to measure not only the extent of the problem (how many fuel poor households there are), but also the depth of the problem (how badly affected each fuel poor household is). The depth of fuel poverty is calculated using the fuel poverty gap. This is the reduction in fuel costs needed for a household to not be in fuel poverty. This is either the change in required fuel costs associated with increasing the energy efficiency of a fuel poor household to a Fuel Poverty Energy Efficiency Rating (FPEER) of band C or reducing the costs sufficiently to meet the income threshold.

The fuel poverty dataset is derived from the English Housing Survey, 2022 database created by the MHCLG. This database is constructed from fieldwork carried out between April 2021 and March 2023. The midpoint of this period is April 2022, which can be considered as the reference date for this dataset.

Main Topics:

A brief summary of each of the variables included in the English Housing Survey: Fuel Poverty Dataset, 2022: Special Licence dataset is included in the study documentation. The variables can be grouped into the following categories:

• Low Income Low Energy Efficiency fuel poverty indicator variables
• income and fuel costs variables
• 10 per cent affordability indicator variables
• additional fuel poverty variables
• English Housing Survey variables
• policy eligibility flags
• income split variables
• energy cost variables
• energy use variables
• weights
• variables introduced in 2015 data release (first published 2017)

The English Housing Survey (EHS) Fuel Poverty Datasets are comprised of fuel poverty variables derived from the EHS, and a number of EHS variables commonly used in fuel poverty reporting. The EHS is a continuous national survey commissioned by the Ministry of Housing, Community and Local Government (MHCLG) that collects information about people's housing circumstances and the condition and energy efficiency of housing in England.

Safeguarded and Special Licence Versions
Similar to the main EHS, two versions of the Fuel Poverty dataset are available from 2014 onwards. The Special Licence version contains additional, more detailed, variables, and is therefore subject to more restrictive access conditions. Users should check the Safeguarded Licence (previously known as End User Licence (EUL)) version first to see whether it meets their needs, before making an application for the Special Licence version.

Fuel Poverty Statistics, 2016

Fuel Poverty Energy Efficiency Rating (FPEER) figures for 2016 are based on improved RdSAP assumptions, introduced in November 2017. Users are therefore advised that there will be a step-change between 2016 data and data published in previous years. Please see section Chapter 1 of the fuel poverty publication for further information on RdSAP changes: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/annual-fuel-poverty-statistics-report-2018.

The fuel poverty dataset is comprised of fuel poverty variables derived from the English Housing Survey (EHS), and a number of EHS variables commonly used in fuel poverty reporting. The fieldwork for the EHS is carried out each financial year (between April and March). The fuel poverty datasets combine data from two consecutive financial years. The midpoint of this period is April 2016, which can be considered as the reference date for the fuel poverty dataset. Guidance on use of EHS data provided by DCLG should also be applied to the fuel poverty dataset. Full information on the EHS survey is available at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) EHS website. Fuel Poverty Statistics are also available from gov.uk.

Further information on fuel poverty and the EHS can be sought from FuelPoverty@beis.gov.uk and ehs@communities.gov.uk respectively. Guidance on use of EHS data provided by MHCLG should also be applied to the fuel poverty dataset.

The majority of fuel poverty variables are included in the dataset deposited at the UK Data Archive under the standard End User Licence (SN 8393). To comply with the data disclosure control guidance issued by the Government Statistical Service, supplementary fuel poverty variables are released under this Special Licence version, which is subject to more restrictive access conditions (see Access section below). Users are advised to obtain SN 8393 to see whether it is suitable for their needs before making an application for the Special Licence version.

Besides the information contained in SN 8393, the Special Licence dataset also includes the following: more detailed income information, the amount of energy (kWh/year) used for space heating, water heating, cooking, light and appliances, as well as the annual cost for each of these, the Building Research Establishment Domestic Energy Model (BREDEM) floor area and the boiler efficiency after control adjustment. More information about the extra variables can be found in the Fuel Poverty Special Licence Dataset Documentation.

In 2024, 15% of Black households were in fuel poverty – the highest percentage out of all ethnic groups.

Portugal, Spain and Bulgaria are the countries most at risk of energy poverty in the European Union. As of 2023, over ********* of households in each country were unable to adequately heat their homes. They were followed Lithuania, where another ** percent of households struggled to keep their houses warm.

Households in Fuel Poverty using the government Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) method. The data shows numbers and percentages of households at County, District, and Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) geographies. The dataset is updated annually. Source: Experimental statistics published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (DBEIS). See the source weblink for further guidance on the statistics and their uses and limitations. (For example, this data should only be used to look for particular areas of high fuel poverty, but not to analyse trends over time. Caution is advised regarding data for small areas such as LSOA, and other local data ideally should be used together with this data).

This statistic represents the percentage of households living in fuel poverty in England in 2010, sorted by working status. In England, approximately **** percent of households where the reference person was unemployed were in fuel poverty that year.

This shows fuel poor households as a proportion of all households in the geographical area (modelled) using the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) measure. Since 2021 (2019 data) the LILEE indicator considers a household to be fuel poor if: it is living in a property with an energy efficiency rating of band D, E, F or G as determined by the most up-to-date Fuel Poverty Energy Efficiency Rating (FPEER) methodologyits disposable income (income after housing costs (AHC) and energy needs) would be below the poverty line. The Government is interested in the amount of energy people need to consume to have a warm, well-lit home, with hot water for everyday use, and the running of appliances. Therefore, fuel poverty is measured based on required energy bills rather than actual spending. This ensures that those households who have low energy bills simply because they actively limit their use of energy at home, Fuel poverty statistics are based on data from the English Housing Survey (EHS). Estimates of fuel poverty at the regional level are taken from the main fuel poverty statistics. Estimates at the sub-regional level should only be used to look at general trends and identify areas of particularly high or low fuel poverty. They should not be used to identify trends over time.Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

This shows fuel poor households as a proportion of all households in the geographical area (modelled) using the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) measure. Since 2021 (2019 data) the LILEE indicator considers a household to be fuel poor if: it is living in a property with an energy efficiency rating of band D, E, F or G as determined by the most up-to-date Fuel Poverty Energy Efficiency Rating (FPEER) methodologyits disposable income (income after housing costs (AHC) and energy needs) would be below the poverty line. The Government is interested in the amount of energy people need to consume to have a warm, well-lit home, with hot water for everyday use, and the running of appliances. Therefore, fuel poverty is measured based on required energy bills rather than actual spending. This ensures that those households who have low energy bills simply because they actively limit their use of energy at home, Fuel poverty statistics are based on data from the English Housing Survey (EHS). Estimates of fuel poverty at the regional level are taken from the main fuel poverty statistics. Estimates at the sub-regional level should only be used to look at general trends and identify areas of particularly high or low fuel poverty. They should not be used to identify trends over time.Data is Powered by LG Inform Plus and automatically checked for new data on the 3rd of each month.

In every period covered by this data, white households were less likely to be in fuel poverty than households in all other ethnic groups combined.

Indicator : Fuel PovertyTheme : Net ZeroSource : Department for Energy Security & Net Zero Definition : Fuel poverty is measured by using the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) fuel poverty metric. The LILEE indicator considers a household to be fuel poor if: it is living in a property with an energy efficiency rating of band D, E, F or G as determined by the most up-to-date [EPC]: Energy Performance Certificates Methodology ; and its disposable income (income after housing costs (AHC) and energy needs) would be below the poverty line.Period : 2022Link : https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-statistics#2023-statistics

Percentage of households in fuel poverty as measured by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero. Statistics by tenure taken from the English Housing Survey. This dataset is one of the Greater London Authority's measures of Economic Fairness. Click here to find out more.

The data covers 2011 LSOA estimates for the number and percentage of households in fuel poverty for the Cambridge sub-region from 2008 to 2012. There are two ways to measure this; 10% income on fuel and high cost/low income model (2011 onwards) and the Cambridgeshire atlas | Fuel Poverty http://www.cambridgeshireinsight.org.uk/housing/existing-homes/fuel-poverty shows both of these.

Context

A household is said to be in fuel poverty when its members cannot afford to keep adequately warm at a reasonable cost, given their income. The term is mainly used in the UK, Ireland and New Zealand, although discussions on fuel poverty are increasing across Europe, and the concept also applies everywhere in the world where poverty may be present. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_poverty The data includes estimates at lower super output area (LSOA) of households subject to high energy costs and low income (since 2011) and of households spending 10% or more of their income on fuel, for 2008 to 2012. All the data comes from DECC. Cambridgeshire Research Group research.group@cambridgeshire.gov.uk

Content

Data on the extent of fuel poverty in England. The Fuel Poverty Indicator (FPI) is a statistical model of fuel poverty based on the 2003 English House Condition Survey (EHCS) and 2001 Census. Lower Layer Super Output Area (LSOA) Geographic coverage: England Time coverage: 2008-2014 Type of data: Modelled data.

Published by: Cambridgeshire Insight

Acknowledgements

FOI@cambridgeshire.gov.uk http://www.cambridgeshire.gov.uk/info/20044/data_protection_and_foi/148/information_and_data_sharing

Photo by Jp Valery on Unsplash

Inspiration

People that can't afford to heat their home. Nine percent of the EU population could not afford to heat their home sufficiently with Bulgaria scoring the highest of 39.2%.

Author:Department for Energy Security & Net Zero (DESNZ)Creation date:April 2023Date of source data harvest:July 2024 Temporal coverage of source data:2021Spatial Resolution:Lower Super Output Area (LSOA)Geometry:PolygonSource data URL:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/sub-regional-fuel-poverty-data-2023-2021-dataData terms of use:Open Government Licence v3 - Dataset can be shared openly for reuse for commercial and non-commercial purposes, with appropriate attribution.Data attribution:- Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. - Dataset processed by Buro Happold in 2024 as part of the CIEN & South London sub-regional LAEPs.Workflow Diagram:Not available.Comments:The data and analysis developed for the sub-regional LAEP was undertaken using data available at the time and will need to be refined for a full Phase 2 LAEP. Please check here for more detailed background on the data.Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the quality and accuracy of the data, the Greater London Authority is not responsible for any inaccuracies and/or mistakes in the information provided.

The majority of households suffering fuel poverty in 2023 were found in the West Midlands region of England. That year, some *** million households in England struggled to pay their energy supplies, while over **** million were not fuel poor.

For a case study of England, global principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to a suite of neighborhood-scale energy vulnerability indicators.

PCA reduces a large multivariate set of vulnerability factors into a reduced number of principal components, retaining key statistical information and spatial patterns. The components have loading values associated with each of the vulnerability indicators in the input data set. Loadings tell us about the type (negative or positive) and strength of the relationship between an indicator and a principal component, providing information about the patterns of vulnerability within the data set that each component is likely to represent. These global component loadings can be mapped to provide an understanding of the spatial distribution of the vulnerability represented by each principal component and the locales in which vulnerability is likely to be enhanced as a result.

This dataset contains three principal components which account for 62.4 percent of the variance in the 21 energy vulnerability indicators identified. The first component has strong positive association with precarious and transient families but a strong inverse relationship with retirement and older age groups. The second component has a strong positive relationship with disability, illness, and the provision of care. The third component has a positive relationship with the energy efficiency and availability of networked and domestic energy infrastructures. The principal components are mapped at the Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) scale, an administrative area unit with a mean population of 1,500 persons.