Credit, Collections & Insolvency News
In 2019, there was an estimated 13.4 per cent of households (3.18 million) in fuel poverty in England according to latest statistics released by the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS).
In 2019, 3.18 million households were classed as fuel poor, a reduction of 1.6 percentage points (341,000 households) from 2018. The depth of fuel poverty is measured by the fuel poverty gap. The fuel poverty gap is the reduction in fuel costs needed for a household to not be in fuel poverty. Under Low-Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) this is either the change in required fuel costs associated with increasing the energy efficiency of a fuel-poor household.
The average fuel poor household would see a reduction of £216 to their fuel costs if they were to be moved out of fuel poverty – the average fuel poverty gap (referred to hereafter as simply the gap). The average gap in 2019 is 4 per cent lower than in 2018 and 33 per cent lower than 201015. We recommend using the gap, in conjunction with the proportion, as an indication of fuel poverty at the national level.
The figures were down from 15 per cent in 2018 (3.52 million). The aggregate fuel poverty gap for England in 2019 was £687 million under the LILEE metric down by 13.2 per cent since 2018 (£791 million).
Commenting on the publication of the date Peter Earl, Head of Energy at comparethemarket.com, said “With more than three million households in Britain living in fuel poverty, tackling this issue is not happening quickly enough to help families struggling with energy debt. Paying for energy bills is a particular concern for families with children at home, whose energy usage tends to be higher anyway, but a winter spent in lockdown will significantly push up their energy costs. Our research shows that if annual energy costs were to rise by only £85, it could tip more households into financial difficulty.”