Fuel poverty and extreme fuel poverty: estimates

Local Authority comparisons of fuel poverty and extreme fuel poverty rates between the current and proposed new definition, for the 2015-2017 period.

Table 5 below shows the fuel poverty rates by local authority under the current definition and the new proposed definition. The local authority statistics use 3 years of data combined, to mitigate the smaller sample sizes when analysing sub-national geographies; in this case the 3-year period from 2015-2017 has been used. This means that the Scotland figures will differ from those shown in Tables 1 to 4 above.

Under the current definition of fuel poverty, the highest rates of fuel poverty were observed on rural and island areas which were Orkney (57%), Na h-Eileanan Siar (56%), Highland (49%), Argyll & Bute (44%) and Shetland (44%). The lowest fuel poverty rates were seen in Edinburgh (17%), East Renfrewshire (21%), West Lothian (21%), Aberdeen City (21%) and Glasgow City (21%).

Under the new proposed definition, the highest rates of fuel poverty were observed in Na h-Eileanan Siar (36%), Argyll & Bute (34%), Highland (33%), Inverclyde (32%), and East Ayrshire (32%). The lowest rates of were seen in East Renfrewshire (18%), Edinburgh (20%), East Dunbartonshire (22%), South Ayrshire (22%) and Angus (23%).

The range of fuel poverty rates across local authorities was wider under the current definition (40 percentage points between the lowest rate in Edinburgh and the highest rate in Orkney) than it was under the new definition (17 percentage points between the lowest rate in East Renfrewshire and the highest rate in Na h-Eileanan Siar).

The largest decreases in fuel poverty rates between the current definition and the new definition were seen in rural and island authorities. Orkney saw a decrease of 26 percentage points (from 57% fuel poor households under the current definition to 31% under the new definition), Na h-Eileanan Siar decreased by 20 percentage points (56% under the current definition to 36% under the new definition), Shetland decreased by 19 percentage points (from 44% under the current definition to 24% under the new definition) and Highland saw a 16 percentage point decrease (from 49% under the current definition to 33% under the new definition). The lower fuel poverty rates under the new definition can be explained by the introduction of an income threshold.

There were small increases in the fuel poverty rate, of less than 4 percentage points, in 6 local authorities, with a larger increase of 6% points in Glasgow (from 21% under the current definition to 28% under the new definition). This increase is likely to reflect the change under the new definition of considering the proportion of income required to be spent on fuel on an After Housing Cost (AHC) basis, rather than Before Housing Costs (BHC) under the current definition. This effectively reduces the required fuel bill threshold for households to be considered fuel poor under the first part of the fuel poor definition, which relates to 10% of household income.

Extreme fuel poverty rates by local authority are shown in Table 6. Under the current definition, the extreme fuel poverty rate was highest in Orkney (23%), Na h-Eileanan Siar (23%), Shetland (18%), Highland (17%) and Aberdeenshire (16%). Under the new proposed definition, the highest rates of extreme fuel poverty were observed in Na h-Eileanan Siar (25%), Orkney (22%), Highland (21%), Argyll & Bute (20%) and Moray (19%).

The biggest increases in extreme fuel poverty rates between the current and new definitions were observed in East Ayrshire (5% extreme fuel poverty under the current definition, 13% under the new definition), Dundee (8% under the current definition, 15% under the new definition), Inverclyde (6% under the current definition, 13% under the new definition), Edinburgh (5% under the current definition, 11% under the new definition) and Glasgow City (7% under the current definition, 13% under the new definition). All local authorities saw extreme fuel poverty rates that were between 2 and 6 percentage points higher under the new definition than they did under the current definition, with the exception of Aberdeenshire (decrease of 1 percentage point from 16% under the current definition to 15% under the new definition), Orkney (decrease of 1 percentage point from 23% under the current definition to 22% under the new definition), and Shetland (no change, at 18% under both definitions).

Increases in extreme fuel poverty rates are more likely to reflect the change under the new definition of considering the proportion of income required to be spent on fuel on an After Housing Cost (AHC) basis, rather than Before Housing Costs (BHC) under the current definition. This effectively reduces the required fuel bill threshold for households to be considered fuel poor under the first part of the extreme fuel poor definition, which relates to 20% of household income. In addition, households in extreme fuel poverty are more likely to be on low incomes and therefore less likely to be affected by the introduction of an income threshold.

Unlike fuel poverty rates, the range of extreme fuel poverty rates observed across local authority areas was similar under the current definition (range of 19 percentage points between the lowest in East Renfrewshire and the highest in Orkney) and the new definition (range of 19 percentage points from the lowest in East Renfrewshire to the highest in Na h-Eileanan Siar).

Table 5: fuel poverty rates by local authority under the current definition and the new proposed definition. 2015-2017.

Table 6: Extreme fuel poverty rates by local authority under the current definition and the new proposed definition. 2015-2017.

Scottish House Condition Survey Local Authority tables are published here: https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/SHCS/keyanalyses/LATables1517