More than one in 10 households were struggling to pay their energy bills to heat draughty homes in 2024, official figures show.
In England, official statistics consider a household to be in fuel poverty if their home has a poor energy efficiency rating of band D or below and their disposable income after housing and fuel costs is below the poverty line.
Data from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero show 2.73 million households, around 11% of families, were in fuel poverty last year, a reduction on the previous year.
The fuel poverty gap – the reduction in fuel costs needed for a household not to be in fuel poverty – was £407 on average, down slightly from £426 in 2023 in real prices.
The Government has a target to move as many fuel-poor homes as possible to a minimum of band C in efficiency by 2030, with a milestone of band D by 2025 – and the figures showed nearly three-fifths (59.5%) of homes were in band C or above, and 93.2% in band D or above in 2024.
The figures also showed energy efficiency measures lifted 59,000 households out of fuel poverty between 2023 and 2024, while growing incomes – partially offset by rising housing costs – lifted 52,000 households out of fuel poverty.
But energy prices rose in 2024, pushing 42,000 households into fuel poverty, the figures reveal.
And the proportion of households which had to spend more than 10% of their income on energy, after housing costs, rose slightly on 2023’s figures to 36.3% in 2024 – and is double what it was in 2020 before the energy crisis hit.
Simon Francis, coordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition, said: “The latest figures show the inadequacy of current fuel poverty monitoring.
“On the one hand it is welcome that official rates of fuel poverty are down – it shows that investing in energy efficiency measures such as insulation and heat pumps works.”
But he said the measure which is most sensitive to the rising cost of living – those spending more than 10% of their income on energy bills – is creeping up.
“This shows just how devastating the ongoing cost-of-living crisis is and what a mistake it was for the Chancellor to axe winter fuel payments.”
He called on Rachel Reeves to commit in full to the £13.2 billion warm homes plan promised in the Labour manifesto, and to go further.
“The Chancellor must provide help to those struggling in fuel poverty now, not continue with cuts in vital support to older and disabled people,” he urged.
