Fuel poverty statistics: ‘Little progress was made by the previous government’

Contact: Anna Cook, Head of Communications and Campaigns, anna.cook@nea.org.uk Mobile: 07884 371913

• Today the government releases the number of households living in fuel poverty in England

• Fuel poverty charity National Energy Action says the previous government made ‘little progress’ but the ‘challenge can, and must, be met’ to help millions of fuel poor households.

The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero’s figures, released today, show:

In 2024, the number of households who are required to spend more than 10% of their income (after housing costs) on domestic energy reached 36.3% (8.99 million) in 2024, up from 35.5 per cent in 2023 (8.73 million).

There were an estimated 11.0% of households (2.73 million) in fuel poverty in England under the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) metric. This is a slight reduction from 11.4% (2.80 million households) in 2023. The data also shows there was a reduction in the number of fuel poor private renters, but there are still 993,000, and single-parent households are the most likely to be in fuel poverty by a significant margin.

It is projected that in 2025, fuel poverty will increase slightly to 11.2% (2.78 million) with the average fuel poverty gap falling by 9% in real terms to £370 (in 2024 prices).

National Energy Action chief executive Adam Scorer says:

“Little progress was being made by the previous government to reduce the numbers in fuel poverty and therefore to meet its legal obligations.

“This government made a commitment to do much, much better. Today’s figures show the challenge that they face, but also the opportunity to turn the tide. Not only to make a difference for families condemned to cold, damp, unhealthy homes but to reduce pressure on health services and reduce carbon emissions from leaky homes.

“No one pretends that tackling fuel poverty is not a challenge. This spring,  government will produce a new fuel poverty strategy for England, publish its Warm Homes Plan and decide how to provide energy bill support next winter. This is a challenge that can, and must, be met.

“Direct support on unaffordable energy bills is critical but so is a plan to build fuel poverty out of homes and, for the millions of renters in fuel poverty, to require landlords to do the same.”