Energy poverty in the Netherlands at the national and local level: A multi-dimensional spatial analysis

Abstract

The strong increase in energy prices since 2021 has led to a turning point in thinking about energy poverty in the Netherlands, where the concept of energy poverty was thus far neglected in national policy making. Against this background we present the first multifaceted spatial analysis of energy poverty in the Netherlands, which will serve as the analytical foundation to set up a national energy poverty monitor. In doing so, we make a novel contribution to the literature by estimating and systematically comparing a new set of energy poverty indicators for the Netherlands, taking into account the spatial dimension of the energy poverty problem by using georeferenced microdata at the household level, covering nearly 80 % of Dutch households. We measure three dimensions of the energy poverty problem: (i) the affordability of energy, (ii) the energetic quality of houses and (iii) households' ability to participate in the energy transition. Our analysis shows that at 2019 energy prices, approximately 7 % of Dutch households face a combination of high energy costs, inadequate insulation and low income. However, almost half of all Dutch households (48 %) cannot participate in the energy transition in the built environment on their own, because they live in a poorly or moderately insulated house that they are unable to upgrade because they are either tenants, or owners with insufficient financial wealth. About 75 % of energy-poor households live in a dwelling owned by a social housing association. These observations challenge the dominant policy perspective that greening of the housing stock mainly requires providing home-owners limited financial incentives in the form of subsidies. As regards the geography of energy poverty, we find that severe energy poverty is much more spatially concentrated than income poverty, and mainly occurs in peripheral regions of the Netherlands plus some densely populated urban districts. We argue that energy poverty is a symptom of slow diffusion of energy-saving technologies due to a combination of investment barriers, which should be addressed with a balanced mix of additional financial resources, price incentives and home insulation standards.