For over five years, Campaign Collective has provided the coordination for the End Fuel Poverty Coalition.
The Coalition is a broad coalition of over 70 anti-poverty, environmental and health campaigners, local authorities, trade unions and consumer organisations. Organisations wishing to join the Coalition can find out more online.
Record rising energy bills continue to plunge households into financial crisis. Levels of fuel poverty were already on the rise before the prolonged period of high prices. The average household energy bill rose from £1,042 in winter 2020/21 to £1,277 in winter 2021/22 and then to £2,100 in winter 2022/23. They rose further to £2,500 in mid 2023 and then fell back slightly before bouncing back to £1,923 from 1 January 2024 (figures include EBSS and EPG and from 1 January use new Ofgem household consumption values).
But of course, the price cap limits the unit cost of energy and standing charges which firms can charge, not the total bill. Following pressure from the Coalition, Ofgem now publishes clearer data on unit rates which enable comparisons to be made.
The official number of households in fuel poverty in England in 2020 stood at 3.2 million (13.2%) according to the latest definition. But the estimated number of households across the UK in fuel poverty as we head into 2024 stands between 6 and 7 million.
- Around 8 million adults will spend winter 2023/24 in cold damp homes and 3.5m adults who live with young children report frequently or occasionally being exposed to mould in their homes.
- Yet statistics published by the government show that since the launch of the Great British Insulation Scheme (ECO+) in March this year, only 1,140 measures have been installed in 1,026 households up to the end of October. The scheme aims to upgrade 300,000 homes by March 2026. E3G estimates that at the current rate of delivery, it would take around 146 years to complete this many homes. ECO4 is also delivering at a much slower rate than ECO3.
This has had devastating consequences:
- Cold homes can cause and worsen respiratory conditions, cardiovascular diseases, poor mental health, dementia and hypothermia (Institute of Health Equity) as well as cause and slow recovery from injury (PHE).
- 7,148 excess winter deaths are caused by cold homes in the UK, based on a 10 year average.
- Fuel poverty impacts people’s physical health by causing higher levels of inflammation, measured by fibrinogen, a blood-based biomarker. Elevated fibrinogen levels have been strongly linked to higher risk of coronary heart disease, heart attacks, stroke and an increased risk of death (UEA).
- Two-thirds of people in fuel poverty experience debilitating levels of depression or anxiety (Well Based EU)
- Illnesses linked to cold, damp and dangerous homes cost the NHS more than £2.5 billion a year (IHE).
The End Fuel Poverty Coalition continued to showcase the diverse range of organisations which are committed to ending the energy challenges households face. And we continued to collaborate with a wide range of groups to highlight the solutions – such as child poverty groups, debt campaigners, tax reform supporters, the Warm This Winter campaign and the wider Stop The Squeeze movement.
As previously, the Coalition work plan envisaged for 2023 was again overtaken by events, however the group continued to have significant impact on the debate around the crisis.
New members of the Coalition were welcomed, such as Epilepsy Action, Heat Trust, MND Association, Basingstoke & Deane Borough Council and Marches Energy Action. We also saw a deepening of relationships with campaign partners such as 38 Degrees and the Money Advice Trust.
Additional and extensive funding for the coordinators’ time was also maintained via the Warm This Winter campaign. Indeed this funding, secured via Uplift, has ensured we were able to deliver activity in support of Warm This Winter alongside the general coordination and specific activity funded by members’ subscriptions for the Coalition.
Key Performance Indicators (data correct at 31.12.23)
In 2023 traffic to the website fell back slightly from the peak in 2022 but it continued to be used as a central resource for news and information about fuel poverty. There were over 37,000 web page views from 20,000+ visitors in 2023, this is up from 15,000 views / 7,000 users in 2021. By far the most popular page was the information about fuel poverty and search engines accounted for the main source of traffic, indicating that our content is working well when people google for facts and figures on the issue.
In the media, the Coalition has been regularly quoted and such has been the demand for spokespeople on fuel poverty, that the co-ordinator has again had to undertake media interviews with major news channels, including BBC Breakfast, Sky News and regular appearances on Times Radio, LBC and Talk TV.
79 news stories were issued in 2023 (up from 68) as well as additional quotes and comments which generated well over 10,000 articles with a circulation / audience of over 2.8bn (up from 4,308 / 1.5bn in 2022).
This means that every UK adult had an opportunity to hear about the work of the Coalition more than 53 times in 2023 (up from 26 in 2022).
The changes caused by Twitter’s conversion to X caused a decline in reach on that platform. However, over 1m X users saw Coalition content in 2022, with an engagement rate of 2.34% which is still above our average engagement rate for 2019-2022 (usually engagement rates dip as reach increases, but this has not happened). Test paid for promotion in November 2023 accounted for 15% of content views which is unlikely to be able to be repeated in 2024 without more funding. We also established Mastodon and Threads channels and continued to promote the EFPC LinkedIn page.
The success of the campaigns by Coalition members has led to increased correspondence with the regulator, Government, MPs and responses to consultations. Indeed, 34 consultations and inquiries demanded a response from EFPC, with many more responded to by members directly. All formal correspondence is now published online: https://www.endfuelpoverty.org.uk/news/reports-and-correspondence/
Our increased levels of correspondence has had a direct impact with the Coalition coordinator invited to give verbal evidence to the House of Commons Select Committee on Energy Security and Net Zero. In addition, meetings with the Minister for Energy Consumers and the Chief Executive of Ofgem were also held to discuss pressing issues.
The coordinator also spoke at events, including the National Pensioners Convention annual conference, the National Energy Action Energy Crisis Conference and an online discussion on the energy poverty and health crisis in Europe organised by WELLBASED.
In May we ran our usual councillor pledge campaign which saw over 20 more council candidates pledge to take action on fuel poverty and has resulted in the motions for membership being submitted to three councils.