What is the FPI for?

Launched in 2003, the Fuel Poverty Indicator has been used by a range of professionals whose efforts are central to the eradication of fuel poverty, such as policy-makers, local authority officers, specific staff within the energy utilities, energy efficiency advisers, health professionals and others in the energy and health sectors.

For them, the benefit of the Fuel Poverty Indicator is that it helps focus their efforts and resources on small areas where the need is greatest, avoiding a costly and inefficient ‘scatter-gun’ approach.

There are many possible uses of the Fuel Poverty Indicator, four of which are outlined below.

1) Affordable warmth strategies

  • The FPI can make a valuable contribution towards local affordable warmth strategies, for example:
  • Providing baseline data for the strategy
  • Providing a tool for monitoring the strategy by combining the FPI with other local data (e.g. SAP, benefit take-up, decent homes) which is regularly updated
  • Raising awareness of fuel poverty as an issue of concern (the maps are particularly useful in this respect)
  • Engaging local political representatives in strategies, particularly those representing areas with high levels of fuel poverty
  • Making a case for funding initiatives in high fuel poverty areas
  • Assessing the level of need in an area and securing appropriate resources to meet that need

2) Informing affordable warmth policies

  • You can use the FPI to help inform policies by considering the distribution of fuel poverty in your area, for example:
  • Targeting policies and programmes on high fuel poverty areas
  • Consider area targeting of programmes where there are wide variations in FPI scores
  • Consider non-area specific programmes where there are low variations in FPI scores
  • Establish the relationship between high fuel poverty areas and other area-based policy initiatives, e.g. health, regeneration
  • As a basis for 'rolling out' area-based programmes according to the extent of fuel poverty

3) Reaching the fuel poor

  • You can use the FPI to help make sure programmes are reaching the fuel poor, for example,
  • Marketing initiatives, information provision and focused advice, such as home visits and take-up campaigns
  • Making sure grant programmes and other fuel poverty resources are reaching areas with high levels of fuel poverty
  • Ensuring fuel poverty policies are tailored to the particular characteristics of the areas you are targeting, e.g. rural, inner city, large minority ethnic populations

4) Research

  • You can use the FPI to help inform research, for example:
  • The relationship between fuel poverty and other deprivation indicators
  • The relationship between fuel poverty and health inequalities
  • Analysing the extent to which the allocation of fuel poverty resources and services match need
  • Comparing the impact of the different fuel poverty definitions on the 'geography of fuel poverty'

We are actively seeing funding to improve the FPI, so any feedback on how you have used the data or maps on this website are welcome.
Email: fuelpoverty@cse.org.uk