Major disparity in fuel poverty across English regions

There were major disparities in the proportion of people in fuel poverty across different regions in England in 2020, the latest government statistics show.

The sub-regional data published on Thursday complements the annual fuel poverty figures which were released by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in February.

BEIS estimated the number and proportion of fuel poor households at smaller geographical levels, such as in local authority areas, using proxy indicators. The department said the statistics should only be used to identify general trends or areas of particularly high or low fuel poverty and should not be used to examine detailed trends over time.

England’s worst affected regions were the West Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber, with the proportion of people in fuel poverty at 17.8% and 17.5% respectively.

BEIS found these regions had median incomes under £23,500 and the lowest share of overall homes in energy efficiency bands A to C.

Conversely the South East had the lowest fuel poverty rate at 8.6%, while the South West and London also had low rates of 11.4% and 11.5%. These regions all had median incomes greater than £25,800.

At a sub-regional level, of the 35 local authorities with a fuel poverty rate of less than 8%, 33 were in the South East and two were in London.

A total of 19 local authorities had a fuel poverty rate of 18% or above. Of these, seven were in the West Midlands and six were in Yorkshire and the Humber. Eight had a fuel poverty rate of more than 20%: Wolverhampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham, Sandwell, Hull, Nottingham, Manchester and Coventry.

Responding to the figures, Peter Smith, director of policy and advocacy at National Energy Action, said: “Despite the lag in the official data, these statistics show fuel poverty impacts across all areas of England and not all households will now be suffering equally from the current energy crisis.

“The poorest households are all too often also disproportionately impacted by poor housing, which means they have far higher energy bills.

“Across the whole of England 180,000 households are still languishing in the most expensive to heat homes.”

“​Clearly, the UK government’s current priority is to provide further adequate emergency support for those people being hardest hit by the energy crisis but improving energy efficiency should also be at the forefront of the UK’s response to the energy crisis,” he added.