Abstract
Recognition of the negative impacts of fuel poverty, a lack of sufficient energy services in the home, has generated considerable interest in how the phenomenon can best be measured. Subsequently, the most well-known indicators deployed in policy-making, the established 10% indicator and the recent Low Income High Cost (LIHC) indicator, have generated considerable discussion and critique. One facet of the debate that remains unexplored is the effect of a change in indicator upon the spatial distribution of fuel poverty. Using spatial analyses we interrogate sub-regional estimates of the two indicators in England, where the LIHC indicator was first conceived. Three principle findings are discussed, enhancing understanding of the geographic features of fuel poverty as understood by each indicator. Firstly, the reduction in fuel poor households has disproportionately affected areas with lower housing costs. Secondly, there is a higher prevalence of fuel poverty in urban areas. Finally, the condition is more spatially heterogeneous with fewer ‘hot-spots’ and ‘cold-spots’. As a result, each indicator captures different notions of what it means to be fuel poor, representing particular vulnerabilities, losses of wellbeing and injustices. This has implications for the targeting of limited alleviation resources and for alternative national contexts where the LIHC indicator might be deployed.
Highlights
In industrialised nations, interest in fuel poverty commonly stems from a concern about excess winter deaths and poor health due to cold homes [1]
The spatial analysis within this paper focuses upon the distribution of fuel poverty using the indicators in England, given that this is the only national context in which the Low Income High Cost (LIHC) indicator currently informs policy-making [3]
The results show three spatial patterns associated with the shift from a 10% indicator to a LIHC indicator in England: a spatially-concentrated reduction in the fuel poor, a higher prevalence of fuel poverty in urban areas and a more spatially heterogeneous fuel poor
Summary
Interest in fuel poverty commonly stems from a concern about excess winter deaths and poor health due to cold homes [1]. Fuel poverty is more broadly defined as an inability to attain the socially and materially necessitated domestic energy services that ensure the wellbeing of a household, allowing them to participate meaningfully in society [5] Within this agenda, a stronger emphasis has been placed upon the considerable geographic component that influences whether a household is likely to fall into fuel poverty [6,7,8]. Interest in the geographical components of fuel poverty has rarely translated into national scale policy-making, with the exception of Northern Ireland (NI) where progress has been made in area-based targeting of fuel poor households [9] This reflects a wider erosion of spatial policy-making over the last decade [10]. We reflect upon whether the use of either indicator alone is sufficient given the different geographies of fuel poverty that each prioritises
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