A Profile of Fuel Poverty in Tees and Durham LASP Region and Member Districts William Baker, Ian Preston & Graham Starling Report to Tees and Durham LASP March 2003 Centre for Sustainable Energy The CREATE Centre Smeaton Road Bristol BS1 6XN Tel: 0117 929 9950 Fax: 0117 929 9114 Em ail : i [email protected] Web: www.cse.org.uk Registered charity no.298740 PROFILE OF FUEL POVERTY IN TEES & DURHAM EX ECUTIV E S UMM ARY • This report describes the distribution of fuel poverty in the Tees & Durham Local Authority Support Project (LASP) area and the constituent districts. • The fuel poverty profiles are based on the Bristol University/Centre for Sustainable Energy’s fuel poverty indicator. The indicator, developed with funding from electricity supplier SWEB, is based on a statistical model that uses 1991 Census and 1996 English House Condition Survey data. • CSE plans to update the indicator in the near future by repeating the modelling work with 2001 Census and 2001 English House Condition data. The new data should be available in early 2004 on CSE’s website. • The average level of fuel poverty in Tees and Durham is 25%, i.e. one in four households live in fuel poverty. This is slightly higher than the English average of 23%. • The incidence of fuel poverty in Tees and Durham is highly polarised between wards with extremely high levels and wards with relatively low levels of fuel poverty. The range of scores in the LASP region is 39% (from 7% to 46%). This is close to the range for the whole of England at 45%. • 46 wards in Tees and Durham feature within the ‘worst’ 10% of wards in England. • The highest levels of fuel poverty are concentrated in the urban and industrial areas surrounding the Tees Estuary, e.g. Middlesbrough, Hartlepool, Stockton-on-Tees and Redcar & Cleveland. • Middlesborough and Hartlepool have the highest rates of fuel poverty among the 12 districts in the LASP region with a mean score of 29% each. Many wards in Middlesborough have particularly high scores, e.g. nearly 5 out of 10 households in Southfield ward live in fuel poverty. • Although high levels of fuel poverty tend to be more associated with the urban, ‘built up’ areas, several rural areas also have high levels, e.g. the predominantly rural district of Wear Valley has the third highest mean incidence of fuel poverty at 26%. • Tackling fuel poverty is particularly difficult in rural areas. Man y rural properties do not have access to gas, the cheapest fuel for heating homes. Further, people in rural areas tend not to claim the benefits to which they are entitled. This also prevents them from accessing energy efficiency grants, such as Warm Front. • The profiles outlined in this report should help Councils and regional bodies identify areas with the ‘worst’ problems of fuel poverty. This information, in combination with the results of the updated indicator (planned for late 2003/early 2004), should help facilitate the targeting of anti-fuel poverty programmes, both within the individual districts and across the LASP region. 2 Contents EXECUTIVE SU MMAR Y ...........................................................................................2 Introduction...................................................................................................................4 Structure of report.......................................................................................................4 Fuel poverty in Tees and Durham LASP.................................................................5 Map 1: A profile of fuel poverty in Tees and Durham LASP.............................6 Fuel poverty in Chester-le-Street..............................................................................9 Map 2: A profile of fuel poverty in Chester-le-Street....................................... 10 Fuel poverty in Darlington....................................................................................... 11 Map 3: A profile of fuel poverty in Darlington................................................... 12 Fuel poverty in Derwentside................................................................................... 13 Map 4: A profile of fuel poverty in Derwentside............................................... 14 Fuel poverty in Durham City................................................................................... 16 Map 5: A profile of fuel poverty in Durham....................................................... 17 Fuel poverty in Easington........................................................................................ 18 Map 6: A profile of fuel poverty in Easington ................................................... 19 Fuel poverty in Hartlepool....................................................................................... 21 Map 7: A profile of fuel poverty in Hartlepool................................................... 22 Fuel poverty in Middlesbrough............................................................................... 23 Map 8: A profile of fuel poverty in Middlesborough......................................... 24 Fuel poverty in Redcar and Cleveland.................................................................. 25 Map 9: A profile of fuel poverty in Redcar and Cleveland.............................. 27 Fuel poverty in Sedgefield...................................................................................... 28 Map 10: A profile of fuel poverty in Sedgefield................................................ 29 Fuel poverty in Stockton-on-Tees.......................................................................... 30 Map 11: A profile of fuel poverty in Stockton-on-Tees ................................... 31 Fuel poverty in Teesdale......................................................................................... 33 Map 12: A profile of fuel poverty in Teesdale .................................................. 34 Fuel poverty in Wear Valley.................................................................................... 35 Map 13: A profile of fuel poverty in Wear Valley ............................................. 36 Conclusion................................................................................................................. 38 Appendix: The Bristol University/CSE fuel poverty indicator methodology..... 40 3 Introduction This report analyses the distribution of fuel poverty1 in the Tees and Durham LASP region, using the Bristol University/Centre for Sustainable Energy Fuel Poverty Indicator (FPI). The indicator is based on a model developed by Bristol University’s Centre for International Poverty Research and the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) and funded by electricity supplier, SWEB. Statistical modelling techniques were used to match 1991 Census and 1996 English House Condition variables, from which the level of fuel poverty was predicted for every ward in England. A more detailed account of the methodology is given in the Appendix. The indicator is based on the best current available data, i.e. the 1991 Census. The indicator will not therefore reflect changes since 1991 in demographics, income levels or housing improvement. Nevertheless, the indicator gives a better indication of fuel poverty levels than more general deprivation indicators, such as the Multiple Deprivation (IMD). This is because the latter relies extensively on benefit data and many of the fuel poor are not entitled or do not claim benefits. The IMD also includes a ‘housing deprivation domain’ that bears either little or even inverse relationship to fuel poverty. For example ‘overcrowding’ forms one element of the domain. However, ‘under-occupation’, rather than overcrowding, is an important contributory cause of fuel poverty. The indicator is broadly indicative of fuel poverty levels within individual wards. It is also likely to give an accurate reflection of the relative rank of wards within the LASP region. Such information can be very useful for deciding priorities when targeting anti-fuel poverty programmes. CSE and Bristol University plan to update the FPI in the near future by repeating the modelling exercise with 2001 Census and 2001 EHCS data. The updated indicator is likely to prove a very powerful predictor of fuel poverty, not least because of the new approach to outputting Census data by Output Area (see Appendix). An updated indicator will also show where improvements have taken place and where future targeting of programmes is needed. Structure of report The report includes a fuel poverty profile for the overall LASP region and each of the districts within the LASP2. Each profile consists of a map and commentary that describes the distribution of fuel poverty within the area in question. The maps are themed by equal 1 Fuel poverty occurs when a household needs to spend 10% or more of their household income on fuel to maintain satisfactory heating and use of energy services. 2 The profiles use 1991 boundaries and ward names. However, current district boundary information was imposed over the data. 4 quartiles of wards within the county/district/unitary authority. Quartiles are based on the distribution of fuel poverty within the particular area being described. Thus the worst quartile of wards (coloured red) in the Middlesbrough area of the Tees and Durham LASP map, for example, will not necessarily correspond with the ‘worst’ quartile of wards in the ‘stand alone’ Middlesbrough map. The commentary accompanying the maps covers the following factors: • Highlights of any particular features