Poverty and Deprivation

Research and Knowledge

Poverty and Deprivation

Focus on fuel poverty

Fuel poverty relates to households that must spend a higher proportion of their household income to keep their house warm at a reasonable temperature.  It is affected by three factors:

  1. household income,
  1. an increase in household fuel costs,
  1. a household’s energy use.

Fuel Poverty Composite Index 

The Research Team have developed a Fife Fuel Poverty Composite Index (CI).  This is to answer the question:

‘Where are neighbourhoods in Fife with increased risk of experiencing fuel poverty?’

The Fuel Poverty Composite Index ranks all datazones in Fife from 1 to 494 (where 1 is highest fuel poverty risk and 494 is lowest fuel poverty risk).  Please note that like the SIMD, this is a relative index and does not show by how much more or less an area is at risk of fuel poverty.