There is a long-standing and commonly held view that much of the private housing stock offered to students is of substandard quality in terms of maintenance, comfort and facilities and is often located in poorer neighbourhoods where properties are generally in an inferior condition. Nonetheless, there has been little research to understand the extent and nature of fuel poverty among this population, how it affects various aspects of their lives, or how it may be remedied. 

Community energy projects offer significant potential for individual households to access cheaper locally generated and renewable sources of power. There are ostensible benefits with regard to both fuel poverty and environmental sustainability. 

The motives for joining or avoiding such schemes, however, are not well understood. If these factors are better known, scheme designers and managers can seek to include measures to boost membership and address reasons for non-participation. 

A range of factors (e.g. rising house prices) are leading to a rapid growth in the number of households living in privately rented properties. Previous research has highlighted the disproportionate share of inferior-quality and older housing, as well as the concentration of low-income households, in this sector. As a result, energy efficiency levels are often poor.

The introduction of the Heat Network (Metering and Billing) Regulations 2014 meant that owners of properties operating district heating schemes were subject to new obligations.

The use of photovoltaic (PV) systems in domestic properties boomed after the introduction of the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) in 2010. The deployment of solar technologies should see a decline in energy users’ fuel costs (and thus fuel poverty), while property owners (including landlords) should benefit from the income generated by the FIT. The wider context of rising fuel poverty acts as a spur to implement the energy efficiency measures with the greatest impact on consumption.

Domestic energy consumption continues to generate a significant proportion of the UK’s carbon emissions. Since the start of the century, considerable investment has been made in increasing household energy efficiency and promoting energy conservation. Despite this, emissions from gas heating sources remain unchanged, and energy consumption is rising in some areas.

Retrofitting has become an increasingly popular way of improving the energy efficiency of buildings as a pathway to reducing carbon emissions and fuel bills.

Householders with disabilities or long-term limiting illnesses are known to be disproportionately at risk of being out of work, reliant on benefits and on low incomes. In addition, many disabled people use greater than average amounts of domestic energy, which is due to factors such as lower levels of activity and spending more time at home. An environment of rising energy prices and restrictions on benefits is likely to affect such consumers much harder and make domestic energy less affordable.

The number of better insulated, warmer and more humid homes has increased substantially over the past few decades in developed nations. At the same time, growing levels of asthma have been identified among their populations. It is known that allergens produced by domestic dust mites are a contributory factor to asthma and that these mites thrive in warm and humid environments. As a consequence, solutions to minimise mite levels while retaining warmth would have valuable health benefits.

To date, government initiatives aimed at tackling rising levels of fuel poverty have largely focused on managing household demand by reducing consumption through improving the energy performance of domestic properties (e.g. grants for insulation) or offsetting costs (e.g. Winter Fuel Payments). Less attention has been paid to how household power generation can play a part in addressing the issue.

Local authorities possess significant powers of inspection and enforcement over rented accommodation within their boundaries, which have been enhanced by legislation over the past 20 years (e.g. the Housing Act 2004). At the same time, tackling fuel poverty has become an important agenda for councils.

Social landlords have been targeted by a number of government policies designed to improve housing conditions, tackle fuel poverty and increase energy efficiency. Their implementation is largely top-down, with residents encouraged to take up opportunities through awareness-raising, tenant engagement schemes and incentives to modify behaviour. Yet fuel poverty continues to rise, while at the same time budgets are shrinking.

The introduction of national programmes such as the Feed-in Tariff (FIT) and Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) was aimed at encouraging the installation of domestic microgeneration systems. Their primary aim was to reduce fossil fuel consumption and thus carbon emissions, but they have the potential to have a positive impact on fuel poverty by reducing expenditure and generating income for households.

Determining whether households are fuel poor has often been reduced to a quantitative exercise based on income calculations. While some form of benchmark is undoubtedly necessary in order to target activity effectively, the actual experience of living in cold homes requires more recognition in the debate. Recognising people’s strategies for using energy and keeping warm and understanding their own opinions and knowledge of the choices open to them are important because this information is vital in fully maximising the potential of scheme design. 

In the mid-2000s, the UK government introduced a new framework for measuring the progress of local government in key public service agendas. This required every local authority (LA) in England to select a dashboard of indicators that best reflected their local priorities (plus a list of statutory measures) from a suite of 200 as the basis for a customised Local Area Agreement (LAA). Among the full list was NI187 ‘Tackling Fuel Poverty’.

Despite considerable work around the take-up of fuel poverty alleviation programmes, prior to this project work had generally focused on or drawn upon evidence from frontline managers and other stakeholders. In comparison, research drawing on the insights of end users had been minimal.  

The success or failure of energy efficiency schemes directed at domestic consumers depends in large part on effective marketing. Previous evidence has indicated relatively low take-up of such schemes among older people, who form households with some of the highest levels of fuel poverty.

Africa, like many parts of the developing world, is undergoing rapid urbanisation. As cities grow, their energy needs increase, but many of the urban poor remain without access to energy infrastructures. Previous studies of development have indicated that wider energy provision is associated with improved socioeconomic inclusion. Nigeria exemplifies some of the key issues facing African nations, namely, a rapidly growing population, a large gulf between rich and poor sections of the population, an unstable energy supply and weak infrastructure.  

There is a significant gap in knowledge of the winter activities of older people, both inside and outside the home. This is despite the fact that previous research has recognised that many older people continue to live in fuel poverty and that excess winter deaths disproportionately affect this section of the population. Understanding the types and levels of activity and their relationships to warmth, heating systems and temperature (both inside and outside) has considerable importance not only for energy research and the energy sector, but also for health and social care.

It is widely accepted that tackling fuel poverty is likely to have positive health benefits for households that receive practical interventions to make their homes warmer or more energy-efficient. In mapping the exact nature of that association, it is important to understand in detail the drivers and how such benefits are manifested. Being able to observe a process from start to finish offers valuable opportunities to catalogue the relationship and inform future policy, practice and research.

A significant proportion of housing research seeks to influence government policy on health inequalities. While previous studies have suggested there is a link between substandard housing and health deficiencies, identifying causality among a range of other contributory factors is often challenging.

Evidence from the National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux (NACAB) suggested that fuel poverty was a major issue among their clients, many of whom struggled with multiple debts. There was an assumption that not only did fuel costs form a significant proportion of the overall sums owed among clients in debt, they were also a driver of debt in other areas. Furthermore, there appeared to be an association between fuel poverty and problems in other areas such as health.  

Full liberalisation of the UK gas markets occurred in 1998, preceded by a pilot phase operating in South West England from 1996. Research into the impact of competition on low-income households during the pilot stage demonstrated that certain groups – households using prepayment meters and those without bank accounts or wanting to pay in cash, plus consumers with special needs – were losing out. In 1999, the electricity markets were fully opened to competition.

Large-scale literature reviews (Ambrose et al., 1996) and specific studies appear to have confirmed that poor housing and poor health have a close relationship and that improving housing conditions has a positive effect (Green, 1997; Collins, 1999; Wilkinson, 1999). However, establishing a causal link remains challenging, in part because of the large number of variables to account for. It may also be the case that the health-led nature of previous research has not fully appreciated the complexities of some of the housing inputs.

A wide variety of services now offer energy advice to members of the public, from energy suppliers to social housing providers. Improving domestic energy efficiency and reducing fuel poverty are core objectives of such provision, but in order to assess whether this advice is having a positive impact on households it is important that such initiatives should be subjected to robust evaluation. Such appraisals are also valuable for identifying examples of good practice, which can be promoted across the sector.

There are approximately a million visually impaired people in the UK, but preliminary research suggests that their energy advice needs have been entirely overlooked. While some information resources could be requested in accessible formats (such as large print), these options were not produced as standard and only related to a proportion of the full range of material. As a result, a significant subsection of the population may have been missing out on energy efficiency opportunities, reducing the potential impact of programmes.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a significant cause of ill health, hospitalisation and death in England and Wales. It is known that damp conditions in housing aggravate the symptoms of asthma sufferers owing to a greater volume of inhaled airborne allergens, but while the pathology of COPD is also largely concerned with disrupted lung function, it has a number of different underlying traits. It is known that the symptoms are worse the lower external and internal temperatures become. 

To date, research on fuel poverty has neglected the specific issues affecting households in rural areas.

Many low-income households are also in fuel poverty and fuel debt. They can often face the conundrum of needing to reduce the amount they spend on domestic energy while at the same time being unable to afford the cost of installations that would potentially achieve the necessary savings. However, if funding to carry out such work can be justified, this challenge may be overcome.

The success of programmes designed to improve energy efficiency and address fuel poverty can depend to a large extent on the ability of beneficiaries to comprehend the information being presented to them. As a significant segment of the UK population possess only very limited literacy and numeracy skills, there is a risk that many people are not being reached by much of the promotional literature, energy advice, operating instructions and other relevant material provided as part of fuel poverty and energy efficiency initiatives.