PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Fuel Poverty: Greenwich and Woolwich (4 September 2015)

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate she has made of the number of people in Greenwich and Woolwich constituency affected by fuel poverty in each year since 2007.

Asked by:
Matthew Pennycook (Labour)

Fuel poverty is measured at a household rather than an individual level.

The Low Income High Costs (LIHC) indicator is used to measure fuel poverty in England, following recommendations from Professor Hills’ independent review of fuel poverty.

Sub-regional fuel poverty levels are modelled using a combination of national data taken from the English Housing Survey and nationally available small area datasets such as the census. The 2013 sub-regional figures, and the full methodology behind them, can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-sub-regional-statistics

The table below shows the number and proportion of households that are fuel poor under the Low Income High Costs indicator in the Greenwich and Woolwich constituency since 2011 (the first year to record sub-regional fuel poverty under the LIHC indicator).

Year	Estimated number of households	Estimated number of fuel poor households	Proportion of fuel poor households (%)
2013*	47,280	4,125	8.7
2012	44,143	3,442	7.8
2011	43,482	2,976	6.8

*Note: 2013 estimates use an updated energy consumption model

Prior to the LIHC indicator, the 10 per cent measure of fuel poverty was used – under this measure, households are deemed to be in fuel poverty if they need to spend more than 10 per cent of their income on fuel in order to achieve an adequate level of warmth.

In 2010, the number of households estimated to be in fuel poverty in the Greenwich and Woolwich constituency under the 10 per cent measure was 4,525, around 10.6% of all households. Estimates prior to 2010 are available from the fuel poverty statistics archive page.

We are fully committed to tackling fuel poverty in England and to meeting our fuel poverty targets. A successful approach to keeping homes warmer for less needs to be long-term, stable, coherent, and affordable, and targeted at those who need it most. The fuel poverty strategy published in March 2015 sets out a clear policy of working towards improving energy efficiency standards in the homes of the fuel poor. Alongside Winter Fuel Payments and Cold Weather Payments, millions of low income and vulnerable households receive support through the Warm Home Discount and Energy Company Obligation which support installation of heating and insulation measures as well as direct reductions in consumers’ energy bills.

Answered by:
Andrea Leadsom (Conservative)
9 September 2015