Question reference: S6W-15551
- Asked by: Miles Briggs, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 6 March 2023
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Current status: Answered by Michael Matheson on 20 March 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many households are currently living in fuel poverty, broken down by local authority area, and, of those, what information it holds on how many households previously received the DWP-administered Cold Weather Payment.
Answer
The number of households in each local authority that are experiencing fuel poverty is published annually (based on a three-year average) from the Scottish House Condition Survey (SHCS).
The latest published set of tables for 2017-2019 are available at:
Scottish House Condition Survey: Local Authority Analysis 2017-2019 .
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.
More recent estimates of fuel poverty at a national level based on scenario modelling have been produced. These reflect the Energy Price Guarantee of £2,500 from April to June 2023 and the end of the £400 Energy Bill Support Scheme with differing levels of additional support for various households. These estimates show fuel poverty increasing from 613,000 households (24.6%) in 2019 to 920,000 households (37%) by April 2023. This 50% increase in the number of fuel poor households will also be reflected across all local authorities in Scotland, albeit with some variation based on the characteristics of dwellings and households in each local authority.
The SHCS recorded households who reported receiving CWP in 2018 and 2019. As three years of data are needed to provide analysis at local authority level, this is not currently available.
At a national level, the SHCS estimates that about 10% of fuel poor households received CWP in 2018 and 2019, as shown in the following table. 2019 is the most recent year for which SHCS data is available.
Fuel poor households self-reporting receipt of CWP
Year | Total Fuel poor households 000's | Of which received CWP 000’s | Percentage receiving CWP |
2018 | 619 | 62 | 10.1% |
2019 | 613 | 63 | 10.2% |