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NETWORK / 24 / SEpTEmbER 2017 B ritish Gas attracted widespread criticism from consumer groups for hiking electricity bills for more than three million house- holds in August – the last of the Big Six energy suppliers to raise prices this year. For customers that are already hard- pressed, these rises in energy costs can worsen a household's level of 'fuel poverty' – or its ability to pay for basic energy needs. Insight: fuel poor homes Fuel poverty does not just afflict the elderly, or come to the fore only in winter. In fact, the government classifies more than two million households in England – 11% of the country's population – as being 'fuel poor', or unable to access and afford adequate energy services. Rose Chard, a consumer insight special- ist at the Energy Systems Catapult, wants to change this. "Essentially, fuel poverty is about people on low incomes with relatively high energy bills," she tells Network. "Tra- ditionally, it has been seen as a combina- tion of three factors: energy efficiency in the home, the cost of energy, and the house- hold's income." Analysing which households are in fuel poverty with the aim of developing policies that improve the situation is not always straightforward, Chard explains, because data from statistics and modelling does not always reveal which households are suffer- ing. "We don't know exactly where all the households in fuel poverty are. It is hard to target households effectively." For example, although fuel poverty is commonly thought to affect the elderly and those in social housing, there is also a large proportion of the fuel poor in the private rented sector. Chard says: "You are more likely to be fuel poor if you use a pre-payment meter to buy gas and electricity. By contrast, there is also a lot of owner-occupied households that pay their bills by direct debit that are in fuel poverty." The consequences of fuel poverty include a contribution to excess deaths in winter if the elderly or vulnerable cannot afford to heat their homes, increased strain on the NHS, and lower educational attainment among children from fuel poor families. Elderly people may become socially isolated if they feel they cannot invite people to their homes because they are not warm. Those living with chronic health conditions may find their conditions worsen in a colder environment, Chard points out. Mortality and poverty In fact, as temperatures drop in the winter, mortality rates rise. There is also a definite link between colder winters and increased rates of mortality, according to the Office for National Statistics. A high number of excess winter deaths in 2012-2013 was in all likeli- hood due to unusually sustained colder weather between mid-January to early April. There was also a high in excess winter deaths in 2014-2015 – in fact, the highest level since the turn of the century – when the winter was colder than the mild winter of 2013-2014. Temperature is not the only factor underlying the winter mortality rate – in 2014-2015, when winter deaths spiked, res- Fuel Povert y Beating the fuel poverty trap Fuel poverty afflicts more than two million homes in England alone. The Energy Systems Catapult wants to change that.