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Sign in or register for an accountFuel poverty is defined by the Office of National Statistics as being in a household that is ‘unable to meet their energy needs at a reasonable cost’ (How fuel poverty is measured in the UK: March 2023, ONS (accessed February 2025)). Being in fuel poverty means that people may need to spend a large part of their overall income on heating and energy, or that they may not be able to heat their home to a warm and comfortable standard or may need to make choices between adequate heating and other essentials.
Homes that are not properly heated can increase the risks of a range of health problems, including respiratory and circulatory conditions, cardiovascular disease, mental health problems and accidental injury. In some cases, the problems are severe enough lead to increased deaths, especially in cold winter months (Fuel poverty and cold-home related health problems, Public Health England (accessed February 2025)).
The latest national statistics from 2023 show that 13% of households in England were in fuel poverty using the Low Income Low Energy Efficiency (LILEE) metric (Annual Fuel Poverty Statistics in England 2024, (accessed February 2025)). However, several charities and organisations use a ‘10% definition’ which defines a household as being in fuel poverty if it spends more than 10% of its income on energy. Using this definition, the government estimated that around 8.9 million households in England would be classed as fuel poor in 2023 (Fuel Poverty, House of Commons Library, 2024 (accessed February 2025)).
The latest available fuel poverty data from the UK government using the LILEE metric shows that in 2022, 12.6% of Salford households were fuel poor, below the rate for England as a whole. This follows a trend of improvement since 2019, when fuel poverty in Salford was higher than both England and Greater Manchester as a whole.
Since 2019 Salford has seen a fall in the proportion of households in fuel poverty to below the national rate by 2022.
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[Download the fuel poverty data, csv format, 1kb]
Research from the Open Data Institute finds that households with children, larger households, households who rent their homes and younger adults are the most likely groups to be at risk of fuel poverty. Over a quarter of lone parent families are at risk of fuel poverty, and households who use prepayment meters for energy supplies are also among the most affected (31% of households using electricity meters and 27% using gas meters were in fuel poverty in 2022) (Who is most at risk of fuel poverty?, ODI (Accessed February 2025)).
The map below shows the percentage of households in fuel poverty by Lower Super Output Areas (LSOAs) which comprise around 400 to 1,200 households each. While many Salford LSOAs have fuel poverty rates below 10%, in others the rate is over a quarter of households in fuel poverty. The particularly high proportion of fuel poor households shown in north-east Salford may reflect the high number of student households in the area.
In 2022 the north-east of Salford had more areas with high level of fuel poverty.
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[Download the households in fuel poverty map data, csv format, 10kb]
A report from the Committee on Fuel Poverty published in 2024 identifies the main drivers of fuel poverty as low income, high energy prices and cold homes. The Committee recommends a review of the effectiveness of the LILEE metric for measuring fuel poverty, improving the targeting of energy efficiency programmes and support for fuel poor households, fairer pricing and better regulation of the energy market and more shared working between local and central government on reducing fuel poverty (Can Fuel Poverty be Ended?, Committee on Fuel Poverty (accessed February 2025)).
Campaign groups such as Fuel Poverty Action advocate for several measures including increased investment in home insulation for older properties, fairer energy pricing, restricting the compulsory installation of prepayment meters, and an equalisation of charges for direct debit and meter payment customers (6 Ways to Fight Fuel Poverty, Fuel Poverty Action (accessed February 2025)).