Social challenge/ impact linked to:

Level of importance

2 - Medium Importance / good to have

Description

Access  to  energy  for  heating,  lighting  and  cooking  was  seen  as  fundamental  in  the  participatory research  projects  reviewed.  Inadequate  heating  is  linked  to  respiratory  and  cardiac  illnesses, early  mortality  and  other  detriments.61  The  inclusion  of  energy  is  therefore  essential.

Affordable  warmth  is  a  term  often  used  in  relation  to  energy,  but  this  is  inadequate  for  our purposes  as  it  does  not  necessarily  relate  to  cooking  and  lighting.  Therefore  fuel  poverty  is  the indicator  used  here. Since  Brenda  Boardman’s  work  in  the  1990s,  fuel  poverty  has  been  used  to  define  a  situation where  a  household  would  need  to  spend  10  percent  or  more  of  its  income  on  all  energy  costs while  maintaining  a  standard  heating  regime

Scale as linked to D2.2 framework

• City

Data source and input type

• Fuel poverty (by Centre  for  Sustainable  Energy in the UK case)

Connection with SDGs

• Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy
• Goal 10: Reduced inequalities

Required Data

• Fuel poverty: 10% or more of income required to be spent on all energy

Expected Outputs

Calculation methods

• 10% or more of income required to be spent on all energy

Level of expertise required

• medium

Links and references

  The Marmot Review  Team  (2011)  ‘The Health Impacts  of  Cold  Homes  and Fuel  Poverty’, London: Friends  of the Earth,  http://www.foe.co.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/cold_homes_health.pdf

B.  Boardman  (1991)  Fuel  Poverty: From  Cold Homes  to Affordable Warmth,  London: Belhaven Press. 

  J. Hills  (2012)  ‘Getting the Measure of Fuel  Poverty: Final  Report of  the Fuel  Poverty  Review’, London: Centre for Analysis  of Social  Exclusion,  https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/48297/4662-getting-measure-fuelpov-final-hills-rpt.pdf

  For  further  discussion regarding fuel  poverty, see:  National  Energy  Action (2014)  UK  Fuel  Poverty  Monitor  2014.   http://www.nea.org.uk/policy-and-research/publications/2014/monitor-2014