Question reference: S6W-14736
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 6 February 2023
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Current status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 24 February 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many households in each local authority area have been estimated to be in fuel poverty in each year since 1999.
Answer
The number of households in each local authority that are experiencing fuel poverty is published annually (based on a three-year average) in the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS) local authority tables starting with the 2003-2006 publication.
The latest published set of tables for 2017-2019 are available at:
Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analysis 2017-2019 .
Estimates from 2010-12 to 2016-18 are available at:
Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analyses 2010-2012 to 2016-2018
Estimates dating from 2003-2006 to 2013-2015 are also available on our archive at:
[ARCHIVED CONTENT] Scottish House Condition Survey - Local Authority
Please Note:
Results from 2016-18 to 2017-19 are based on best estimates under the new definition of fuel poverty as set out in the Fuel Poverty (Targets, Definition and Strategy) (Scotland) Act 2019. They reflect amendments made to the legislation during the Bill process up to and including Stage 2.
Results from 2003-06 to 2015-17 are based on the definition of fuel poverty set out in The Scottish fuel Poverty statement 2002 .
As the 2020 SHCS was suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic and results from the 2021 External+ SHCS are not yet published and unlikely to be consistent with previous years, the 2017-2019 results are the latest available at Local Authority level.
Due to the recent rise in energy prices and lack of recent SHCS data on fuel poverty, we have published scenario modelling of national fuel poverty rates under the Energy Price Guarantee, at both the current £2,500 level from October 2022 as well as the £3,000 level from April 2023.
This modelling estimates that from October 2022 there are around 860,000 households (35%) in fuel poverty in Scotland. This is an increase of 247,000 households or around 10 percentage points from the latest available 2019 SHCS statistics, which showed 613,000 households in fuel poverty (25%). With the increase in the Energy Price Guarantee to £3,000 in April 2023 we estimate that around 980,000 households (39%) in Scotland will be in fuel poverty. While these modelled estimates are not available at Local Authority level, the large increases in the fuel poverty rate will be reflected across each Local Authority in Scotland.