New research finds 80% of English homes (around 2.5 million) in fuel poverty will still be so in 2030 unless urgent action taken. 
 

Research published by AgilityEco and Gemserv reveals that current funding and policy to relieve fuel poverty will help only a fraction of the 3.2 million homes that were in fuel poverty in 2019. The legally binding target to all but end fuel poverty by 2030 requires a further £18 billion to be spent in fuel poor homes across the rest of the 2020s. Even if some proposed action is taken, double the amount of current funding is still required for energy efficiency programmes.  

The report calls on the Government to: 

• Implement existing promises and proposals on fuel poverty funding 
• Provide longer term certainty and extend the current schemes to 2030  
• Expand the schemes to ensure that a further £10bn reaches fuel poor homes. 
   

Key Findings  

• Over 80% of the 3.2 million homes in fuel poverty will remain so in 2030, unless action is taken beyond current policy commitments.  
• £18 billion more would need to be invested in fuel poor homes if the 2030 fuel poverty target is to be achieved without action beyond current policy and funding. Investment is needed from both government and landlords. 
• If proposals to require private landlords to improve the standard of fuel poor homes are implemented and enforced and current government funding commitments are rolled over, it is estimated that the funding gap would reduce from £18 billion to £10 billion. This would still leave 1.3 million homes in fuel poverty. 
• Only a fraction of the £32.4 billion of funding currently allocated will reach fuel poor homes. If this targeting remains unchanged, a further £34 billion will be needed for the £10 billion to reach fuel poor homes.  
• Finding this £10 billion additional funding for fuel poverty could result in a net benefit to the economy in the region of £15 billion.  
   

Download a full copy of the report