The definition of affordable warmth is where a household can achieve temperatures needed to maintain health and comfort for expenditure of less than 10% of income. This definition has been accepted and used by successive Government Departments with responsibilities for fuel poverty issues to quantify the extent of the problem. However there has been some disagreement over what constitutes household income and this clearly has considerable bearing on the total number of fuel-poor households.
The Government’s preferred definition of household income includes Housing Benefit and Income Support for Mortgage Interest in the calculation of household resources, although fuel poverty estimates are also published using a formula that excludes housing subsidies. [1]
NEA’s view is that neither of these definitions is acceptable or rational and that the only sensible definition of income is one that uses actual disposable income after housing costs.
Fuel poverty results from a combination of low household income, unaffordable energy costs and inadequate thermal insulation and inefficient and uneconomic heating systems. Whilst competition and effective regulation in the domestic energy market have resulted in falling energy prices in recent years, this trend is unsustainable. Welfare benefit increases for vulnerable groups, and other initiatives such as the minimum wage, have addressed some aspects of general poverty and fuel poverty, this approach must be considered short term in the context of fuel poverty. NEA maintains that energy efficiency is the only rational solution to fuel poverty and that Government should direct much greater resources to improving the energy efficiency of the housing stock.
Between 1996 and 2001 the average SAP rating improved from 44 to 51 across the whole of the housing stock. However some 75% of fuel-poor households still occupy properties with a rating below this latter level – a proportion not significantly changed between 1996 and 2001.
| SAP bands | % fuel poor households | Number fuel poor households | Total households | |||
| 1996 | 2001 | 1996 | 2001 | 1996 | 2001 | |
| Under 30 | 52.5% | 39.8% | 1,714,000 | 747,000 | 3,264,000 | 1,880,000 |
| 30 to 50 | 26.2% | 13.7% | 2,511,000 | 1,011,000 | 9,555,000 | 7,378,000 |
| Over 50 | 16.7% | 5.3% | 1,050,000 | 594,000 | 6,824,000 | 11,252,000 |
| All | 26.8% | 11.5% | 5,275,000 | 2,352,000 | 19,643,000 | 20,510,000 |
Note: The Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) is a means of determining the energy efficiency standard of a dwelling. It uses a scale of 1 (worst) to 120 (best) in measuring the heating and insulation characteristics of the property. At the time the English data was compiled, SAP ratings used a scale from 1 to 100.
[1] The figures in the table are based on this definition of household income.