Smartline Research
How Fuel Poverty Affects Health and Wellbeing
Research into social housing in the UK
Not everyone can afford to heat their home and still meet living costs. Fuel poverty is an increasing problem in the UK, and as our latest research shows, people with mobility issues are more at risk.
Understanding what causes fuel poverty can help to address the problem, and hopefully bring about positive changes for millions of “fuel poor” households.
Why is it important to research fuel poverty?
Fuel poverty is a growing problem across Europe. Current estimates indicate that about 2.53 million (just over 13%) UK households were affected by fuel poverty in 2019 , and this number is rising. In some European countries, up to 34% of homes are fuel poor.
Social housing residents are more vulnerable to fuel poverty than homeowners, as people are often older and living on lower incomes. Being unable to properly heat your home or being unable to pay utility bills has a detrimental effect on people’s mental health and wellbeing.
What is the official definition of fuel poverty?
Fuel poverty isn’t simply about struggling to meet costs – it has an official measure. In England, it’s measured using the Low-Income Low Energy Efficiency indicator (LILEE).
There are two main measures:
Is the household living in a dwelling that rates as a D or below for energy efficiency?
After paying the fuel bills, is the remaining income low enough to put the household below the poverty threshold?
When we discuss fuel poverty, we’re looking at three key factors: income, fuel cost, and the energy efficiency of the building.
What research has been done?
This research combines self-reported information about fuel poverty from people living in Cornwall’s social housing (a survey of 329 households). We also used data collected from temperature-sensing devices placed in 280 home.
This research has two aims:
It will provide a comparison between the self-reported measures of fuel poverty and the fuel poverty revealed from the sensor data.
It will examine the impact of fuel poverty on residents’ mental and physical health.
What has the research shown us so far?
Fuel poverty can be caused by several important factors linked to people’s socio-economic status including age, household size and house size. There’s also a link between fuel poverty and poor mobility.
“Our findings indicate links between physical illness, fuel poverty and mental illness. Having better measures in place to identify vulnerable people who experience these impacts, combined with a more holistic approach to tackling fuel poverty, could help to reduce these risks and improve people’s health and wellbeing.”
What are the impacts?
Our results so far suggest that fuel poverty is a severe issue. Housing associations should pay special attention to tenants most at risk, including those who have disabilities, limited mobility and chronic conditions.
We need more understanding about what determines fuel poverty. If housing associations and other authorities are more aware of which groups most at risk, they can identify and support a greater number of households - and prevent added mental health risks.
What are the implications for the community and decision makers?
If we understand the causes of fuel poverty we can inform future policies. For example, carbon reduction efforts across the whole housing sector, and supporting housing associations to identify households at risk.
The research showed that more holistic approaches are needed from the sector, including improvements to the environment and community engagement, plus the specific building.
Finding out that fuel-poor households are also mobility-poor highlights fuel poverty as a more severe problem: simply, fuel-poor householders have to spend more time in their homes and so suffer more. Taking a more public health-based view could result in more sustainable health and wellbeing.
The research also showed the value of sensor technology in identifying health risks and initiatives. Sensor technologies can help to target initiatives across a whole range of public health issues.
The study also raises the question of how we define fuel poverty, as we mentioned earlier. Should we use the current fixed warmth standard of 18°C or take a more flexible view? We should also consider that the 18°C warmth standard is less important for healthy groups than it is for vulnerable ones.
What happens next?
We are still collecting sensor data and will be publishing a report in the summer of 2021.
Who was involved?
The Smartline project team is headed by Dr Gengyang Tu, with Prof Karyn Morrissey, and Dr Tim Taylor of the University of Exeter, and Dr Richard A. Sharpe from Cornwall Council.
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