England has had a “Fuel Poverty Strategy” since 2001.
Its publication fulfilled a statutory obligation under the Warm Homes and Energy Conservation Act 2000, which established the target of ending fuel poverty ‘as far as reasonably practicable’ for all households within 15 years.
The original strategy recommended that the numbers of households suffering fuel poverty in England should be displayed using two main definitions. These were as follows:
• A household was in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime, it needed to spend more than 10% of its income ( including Housing Benefit or Income Support for Mortgage Interest) on all household fuel use;
• A household was in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime, it needed to spend more than 10% of its income ( excluding Housing Benefit and Income Support for Mortgage Interest) on all household fuel use
Since 2001 there have been reviews and attempts to refine the definitions and targets, most notably in 2014 and 2021. These tended to place more emphasis on home energy efficiency as the key variable, placing particular weight on homes that have a Fuel Poor Energy Efficiency Rating (FPEER) below Band C
The current Government has noted, however, that: “Since the current fuel poverty target was introduced in 2014, only around 700,000 households have been taken out of fuel poverty. In 2023, the majority of fuel poor households (81.1%) are living in homes rated energy efficiency band D (2.6 million households). This means that 600,000 households in fuel poverty remain in a home rated below band D (18.9%). As a result, government is significantly below the statutory fuel poverty target level and it faces a considerable challenge to bring the remaining homes out of fuel poverty by 2030 “
And: “Not only has insufficient progress been made on reducing fuel poverty, but the scale of the problem has deepened. The average fuel poverty gap is now £417, 66% higher than in 2020. The number of households required to spend more than 10% of their income after housing costs on their energy bills also soared to 8.9 million in 2023, more than double the previous rate”.
It did so in a new “Review of the Fuel Poverty Strategy”, a consultation document to which Blackburn and District Trades Union Council decided, at its March 2025 meeting, to submit a response.
This response put particular emphasis on three issues:
1) Returning to a fuel poverty measure that focussed on energy cost and incomes;
2) Taking action to address the cost of energy in Britain through structural and ownership reforms of the utilities, particularly in terms of recovering public assets; and
3) Considering if a more deliberate and planned approach to “retrofitting” houses, to be based on a network of delivery Task Forces run by local authorities, charged with identifying sub-standard properties, engaging with property owners, and being responsible for the hands-on work.
You can read our full response here: