Countryside faces ‘fuel poverty’ crisis

People living in rural areas have been left behind by government drives to make homes more energy efficient, charities have warned. This leaves them vulnerable to rising energy prices. Research by National Energy Action and the Campaign to Protect Rural England shows that rural areas are five years behind urban areas in the energy efficiency of homes – and are paying nearly 55% more for their fuel as a result.

The charities have called on ministers to establish new energy-efficiency initiatives to help people reduce their energy consumption, particularly those in fuel poverty, who cannot afford to heat their homes.

Years of rising energy prices – British Gas announced a hike of 12.5% to electricity bills earlier this month – have been partly offset by programmes to make homes more energy efficient.

Households in cities used nearly 22.8% less energy per square metre in 2015 than they did in 2008, according to figures published by the Department for Communities and Local Government last month, thanks to initiatives such as the Energy Company Obligation, where energy companies subsidise installation of insulation, modern boilers and heating systems.

Yet in rural areas people have not benefited to the same extent. The charities’ analysis of the latest government data shows that in 2015 rural homes were at the same standards as urban homes in 2010. As a result, energy bills are much higher in the countryside.

In 2015, the average annual energy bill was £1,324.50 for a rural household – £466.90 more than for people in cities. The fuel poverty gap – the extra money that people need to spend to heat their home properly – is £726 for rural homes compared with £303 in urban areas.

“We know that, far from being a rural idyll, rural communities can suffer from chronic levels of fuel poverty, which has negative impacts on vulnerable people’s health and quality of life,” said Peter Smith, director of policy and research at National Energy Action. “We also know why this happens: they typically live in harder-to-treat, energy-inefficient properties with solid walls.”

Solid walls leak heat much more quickly than modern double wall constructions – in rural areas, 20.6% of households are given F and G ratings for energy efficiency, compared with just 2.8% in urban areas. Households in rural areas need to spend more than £190m extra to keep their home warm.

Many rural areas have no access to cheaper fuels like gas, and rely on heating oil or electricity. An NEA report into fuel poverty in Dorset, which examined 37,000 households, revealed that people without access to mains gas were much more likely to be in fuel poverty, as initiatives have focused on replacing gas boilers or switching supplier. “The price of heating oil in particular has risen sharply in the past year,” Smith said. “Recent jumps in electricity prices will also badly affect rural people.”

“At a time when energy efficiency improvements could be helping to keep up with the pace and scale of rising energy costs, the delivery of home energy efficiency improvements has also stalled. These worrying trends could leave many rural consumers locked into high bills for years to come as well as needless deaths this coming winter.”

Energy-efficiency schemes have been unpopular with energy companies. Former prime minister David Cameron is said to have pledged in 2013 that he would get rid of the “green crap”. By 2015, the government had scrapped its green deal scheme, which gave homeowners loans to improve energy efficiency. The Energy Company Obligation budget was cut by 40%, to £640m. Earlier this year, the UK also lobbied the EU to reduce energy-efficiency targets which will oblige member states to improve energy efficiency by 30% before 2030.

Daniel Carey-Dawes, senior infrastructure campaigner at the CPRE, said: “Rural areas have lower average incomes than urban areas, but face much higher energy bills. The energy efficiency of their homes is far worse, and the little funding they received before has now been cut.

“[Yet] rural communities face a double bind, because efforts to increase energy supply almost always fall on the countryside. This can be through unpopular initiatives such as fracking, or the infrastructure required for huge new energy generation projects.

“Rather than trying to meet escalating demand through expensive energy projects, the government should establish a new programme of energy efficiency initiatives that meet high design standards and ensure homes are fit for a zero carbon future.

“By improving energy efficiency, we can save money for consumers, lower the costs of meeting demand, reduce carbon emissions and protect the countryside.”