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.

Basic Income Trial

In September 2017, the Scottish Government announced in its Programme for Government that it would support local authority areas to explore a Citizen’s Basic Income Scheme by establishing a fund to help areas to develop their proposals further and establish suitable testing. The amount of funding offered was £250,000 over the two financial years 2018/19 and 2019/20. This complimented funding already committed by local authority areas.

Homepage