Fuel Poverty Statistics in England – Lookup tool

This Excel spreadsheet tool allows easy access and presentation of data on Fuel Poverty levels and rates for Constituencies, Local Authorities and Regions within England. Data for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not available on a comparable basis, as differing definitions of fuel poverty are used in these areas.

The definition of Fuel Poverty in England, as used by DBEIS, is a “Low Income, High Cost” definition. A household is deemed to be in Fuel Poverty if it has required heating costs which are above the national median, and meeting these costs places the household below the official poverty line (60% of median income).

Data on this measure are available only since 2011 – prior to this a “10 per cent” definition was used, where a household was deemed to be in Fuel Poverty if it spent more than 10% of its income on fuel, regardless of overall income levels. This definition is still used as the headline measure of Fuel Poverty in Scotland and Wales.

Fuel Poverty data are not directly counted in each area, but are estimated and statistically modelled through combinations of Census records and English Housing Survey data. Full details of the methodology used are available at Fuel Poverty Statistics Methodology: 2017. These techniques mean that the precise numbers of households are subject to statistical uncertainty, and that small changes in the number of households in Fuel Poverty within a given area may be down to statistical variation rather than substantive change.