Fuel Poverty

When the Shetland Partnership Plan was created in 2018, fuel poverty was defined as: in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime, households would need to spend more than 10% of their household income – including Housing Benefit or Income Support for Mortgage Interest – on all household fuel use. 

The Fuel Poverty (Targets, Definitions and Strategy) (Scotland) Act 2019 established a new two-part definition whereby a household is considered fuel poor if:

• after housing costs have been deducted, more than 10% (20% for extreme fuel poverty) of their net income is required to pay for their reasonable fuel needs
• after further adjustments are made to deduct childcare costs and any benefits received for a disability or care need, their remaining income is insufficient to maintain an acceptable standard of living, defined as being at least 90% of the UK Minimum Income Standard (MIS).

Source

The Scottish House Condition Survey is our source for this indicator. The 2010-2018 tables are available here. The 2017-2019 Local Authority Tables can be found here.  From these tables, ‘fuel poverty’ is selected under ‘contents’. The figure for “% of LA (percentage of local authority)” is where our data comes from. 

Most recent data

31% of households in Shetland were classified as experiencing fuel poverty in 2019.  There had, however, been a change by the Scottish Government to the definition of fuel poverty. This means that this no longer compares to the baseline of 53% reported in 2016.

Why do we monitor this indicator?

For many who are affected by higher costs, it can have a knock on impact on other aspects of their lives, including their physical and mental wellbeing. 

End Fuel Poverty (2022) outline some of the effects of fuel poverty such as:

• Ill health and death – cold homes can exacerbate and cause respiratory conditions, cardiovascular diseases, poor mental health, dementia and hypothermia as well as cause and slow recovery from injury. Illness linked to cold, damp and dangerous homes costs the NHS more than £2.5 billion a year. 
• Harm to mental health – financial stressors such as experiencing fuel payment difficulties increases the risk of experiencing mental ill health.
• Harm to children – causing illness and indirect impacts such as lower rates of educational attainment in schools.
• Harm to disabled people.
• Energy efficiency – households living in least efficient homes will pay more per year on energy bills.

This indicator contributes to monitoring the desired outcomes outlined in the People and Money priorities of the Partnership Plan.

“Everyone will be able to access the support they need to minimise their outgoings with low income households benefitting from reduced bills.”