Official Statistics

Sub-regional fuel poverty in England, 2023 (2021 data)

Published 27 April 2023

Applies to England

Summary findings

• The overall level of fuel poverty in England in 2021 was 13.1% using the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) fuel poverty metric.
• The lowest levels of fuel poverty were in the South East (8.4%), South West (11.9%) and London (11.9%).
• The West Midlands had the highest rate of fuel poverty (18.5%) followed by Yorkshire and the Humber (16.5%).
• There were 23 Local Authorities with an estimated fuel poverty rate above 18% in 2021. Of these, 11 were in the West Midlands and seven in the North West.
• There were 33 Local Authorities with an estimate fuel poverty rate below 8% in 2021. All but one of these were in the South East.

What you need to know about these statistics

Estimates of fuel poverty at the regional level are taken from the main fuel poverty statistics for 2021. 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 detailed trends over time.

They are Official Statistics which will be undergoing an evaluation process prior to being assessed as National Statistics.

1. Introduction

Fuel poverty in England is measured using the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) fuel poverty metric, which was set out in the Fuel Poverty Sustainable Warmth strategy published in February 2021. 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) Methodology; and
• its disposable income (income after housing costs (AHC) and energy needs) would be below the poverty line ^{[footnote 1]}.

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, for example, by not heating their home are not overlooked.

The Annual Fuel Poverty Statistics Report is a National Statistics report which provides a comprehensive view of the latest statistical trends and analysis of fuel poverty in England. These statistics report on the proportion of all households in fuel poverty in England and the depth of their fuel poverty. The report also looks at the key drivers of fuel poverty and how fuel poverty in England varies by a number of dwelling and household characteristics.

The sub-regional Experimental Statistics complement the National Statistics on fuel poverty, by estimating the number and proportion of fuel poor households at smaller geographical levels, for example, Local Authority (LA) level. The sub-regional statistics do not report on the average fuel poverty gap.

The headline statistics detailed in the 2023 annual report are based on projections to 2022, so provide more timely estimates of fuel poverty down to regional level. The sub-regional fuel poverty estimates are based on the 2021 modelled data and cannot be run yet for 2022 using this methodology.

This year’s annual report, and a detailed methodology on how fuel poverty is calculated is available on the DESNZ website.

This is the third year that sub-regional breakdowns have been produced based on the LILEE indicator, however sub-regional breakdowns are also available between 2010 and 2018 based on the LIHC indicator.

Accompanying tables

For each of the following geographical levels, estimates are available for the total number of households, the number of fuel poor households, and the proportion of households in fuel poverty:

• Table 1: English Region ^{[footnote 2]}
• Table 2: Region, County, Unitary & Local Authority
• Table 3: Lower Super Output Area (LSOA)
• Table 4: Parliamentary Constituency

See the accompanying tables.

Interactive map

An interactive map for indicators of domestic energy efficiency and energy consumption is available which includes the percentage of households in fuel poverty down to Lower Layer Super Output Area. See the interactive map of fuel poverty data for 2021

2. Regional fuel poverty

There was a high level of variation in the rates of fuel poverty between regions. This was analysed in the annual fuel poverty statistics and supporting tables. There was a strong correlation between high fuel poverty and low median incomes ^{[footnote 3]}.

The highest regional rates of fuel poverty in 2021 were in the West Midlands (18.5%) and Yorkshire and the Humber (16.5%) which both had median incomes under £24,600. These regions also had lower median fuel poverty energy efficiency ratings (FPEER). Households in the East Midlands also had a lower median FPEER rating, however the rate of fuel poverty was lower due to a higher median income of over £26,100. The lowest fuel poverty rates were in the South East (8.4%), South West (11.9%) and London (11.9%) which had greater median energy efficiency ratings and median incomes greater than £26,200.

In the annual fuel poverty statistics (section 3.1.7) an additional indicator of the fuel poverty gap is used to measure the depth of fuel poverty, but this is not modelled at sub-regional level. This indicator shows that in 2021, fuel poor households in the South West and North West had the deepest levels of fuel poverty due to having the highest energy costs due to a combination of size of home and energy efficiency.

Further information on the drivers of regional differences in fuel poverty is detailed in the annual fuel poverty report, based on estimates of fuel poverty to 2022.

Figure 1: Proportion of households in fuel poverty, by Region, 2021

3. Sub-regional fuel poverty

Maps provide a useful way of comparing fuel poverty across different geographical areas. Figure 2 shows the proportion of households in fuel poverty in England at Local Authority level.

Figure 2: Proportion of households in fuel poverty by Local Authority, 2021

The Local Authorities with the highest rate of fuel poverty are shown in dark blue, where 23 Local Authorities had a fuel poverty rate of 18% or above. This included 11 in the West Midlands, and seven in the North West. The Local Authorities with the highest estimated levels of fuel poverty were: Birmingham (23.2%), Stoke-on-Trent (22.9%) and Wolverhampton (21.8%).

The Local Authorities with the lowest levels of fuel poverty are shown in light yellow, with 33 Local Authorities having a fuel poverty rate of 8% or less. All but one were located in the South East, with the lowest levels of fuel poverty estimated in: Bracknell Forest (5.2%) and Wokingham (5.3%).

The variation in the rate of fuel poverty within a region differs across regions. Figure 3 plots the fuel poverty rates for the 33,755 Lower Super Output Areas (LSOA) by region. This shows that the largest difference between the top and bottom 10 per cent of LSOAs was in the West Midlands where the 90th percentile was more than 21 percentage points higher than the 10th percentile. The second highest was Yorkshire and The Humber with a gap of over 18 percentage points. The South East had the smallest variation in fuel poverty rates with a difference of over 8 percentage points between the 90th and 10th percentiles.

Figure 3: Proportion of households in fuel poverty, LSOAs within Region 2021

The box plot shows the median and interquartile range of the proportion of households in fuel poverty in Local Authorities by region. The whiskers represent the 10th and 90th percentile Local Authorities for each region ^{[footnote 4]}.

4. Methodology

Fuel poverty statistics are based on data from the English Housing Survey (EHS). Given the sample size of the EHS (10,572 households in the combined 2020/21 and 2021/22 dataset ^{[footnote 5]}, it is not possible to reliably estimate fuel poverty levels in small geographical areas, such as Local Authorities, without the use of modelling.

A logistic regression model is created, matching data from the EHS on whether a household is fuel poor or not (as the binary dependent variable) with data from other sources available for all Census Output Areas (OA), e.g. Census 2011 data (as the independent variables). The factors used in the modelling are set out in the sub-regional methodology documentation, alongside other details of the methodology.

The model is used to estimate the levels of fuel poverty for all OAs across England; these are then aggregated to higher level geographies, which are constrained to the regional totals. This modelling approach introduces the possibility that small, atypical areas are not accurately picked up by the model. It is therefore essential to compare, where possible, the modelled sub-regional level results to the national and regional statistics.

In 2013, the former Department for Energy & Climate Change undertook an internal review of the methodology used to produce sub-regional estimates of fuel poverty, in conjunction with Office for National Statistics (ONS) Methodology Advisory Service. This review found that estimates of fuel poverty were robust at Local Authority level, but not robust at lower levels of geography. In particular, estimates of fuel poverty at Lower Super Output Area (LSOA) should be treated with caution. The estimates 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 within an LSOA, or to compare LSOAs with similar fuel poverty levels due to very small sample sizes and consequent instability in estimates at this level.

Annex: Further information

Revisions policy

The Department’s statistical revisions policy sets out the revisions policy for these statistics, which has been developed in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics.

User engagement

Users are encouraged to provide comments and feedback on how these statistics are used and how well they meet user needs. Comments on any issues relating to this statistical release are welcomed and should be sent to: fuelpoverty@beis.gov.uk

The Department’s statement on statistical public engagement and data standards sets out the department’s commitments on public engagement and data standards as outlined by the Code of Practice for Statistics.

Pre-release access to statistics

Some ministers and officials receive access to these Official Statistics up to 24 hours before release. Details of the arrangements for doing this and a list of the ministers and officials that receive pre-release access to these statistics can be found in the Department’s statement of compliance with the Pre-Release Access to Official Statistics Order 2008.

Contact

Responsible statistician: Stephen Oxley
Email: fuelpoverty@beis.gov.uk
Media enquiries: 020 7215 1000
Public enquiries: 07471358388

1. The poverty line (income poverty) is defined as an equivalised disposable income of less than 60% of the national median: Persistent poverty in the UK and EU: 2015. ↩

2. These are National Statistics and are presented in the Annual Fuel Poverty Statistics Report. ↩

3. Median incomes and FPEER ratings by region in 2021 are shown in table 5 of the Fuel Poverty Supplementary tables. ↩

4. These statistics are calculated by ranking the LAs within a region. The median (50th percentile) represents the middle LA, lower quartile (25th percentile) the LA one-quarter through the distribution and upper quartile (75th percentile) three-quarters through the distribution. ↩

5. More information on the EHS combined dataset can be found in Annex B.4 of the Annual Fuel Poverty Statistics report. ↩