New report reveals vast scale of fuel poverty across the UK, with 20% leaving the house to stay warm

A new report has outlined in detail the widespread scale of fuel poverty in all four nations of the UK, with 6.5 million UK households officially classed as being in fuel poverty this winter.

Produced by National Energy Action and Energy Action Scotland, this year's edition of the UK Fuel Poverty Monitor used specially-commissioned YouGov polling as well as personal testimonies from 136 people explaining how poverty is impacting their lives.

It found that 41% of people with prepayment meters have found themselves with no credit in their meter and have had their electricity cut off, while 43% of UK adults have gone to bed early at some point this winter just to stay warm.

The report found that 23% of people closed the curtains all day to stay warm, 49% turned the heating off even though they felt uncomfortably cold, and 20% had left the house at some point to avoid having to turn the heating on at home.

13% of those polled used appliances like ovens to stay warm, and 6% had even foraged locally for wood, peat, or other solid fuels to burn at home for warmth.

The report's authors said that any strategies the four UK nations had put in place to address fuel poverty this year had been "overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis," adding that government support schemes were "not sufficient to address the scale of the challenge faced by the most vulnerable households."

The report also outlines the economic benefits of a comprehensive UK-wide plan to address fuel poverty with interventions such as insulation and retrofit. Analysis by the report's authors found that serious action would save households £5 billion on bills between 2022 and 2030, and would create 22,000 new full time jobs.

They also predict that it would have significant effects on the UK's carbon outputs and air pollution levels, and would reduce our reliance on imported energy by 24 terawatts between 2022 and 2030.

"Our wider research has shown that reducing heating costs can extend the life chances for children and be transformative for householders' health," wrote the report's authors of the health and wellbeing benefits of comprehensive action.

"Overall, this analysis demonstrates that prioritising fuel poor households for energy efficiency upgrades is not just crucial to offset the energy crisis or achieve a fair and affordable transition, but also to derive the most benefits to society from meeting net zero."

The UK Fuel Poverty Monitor also made six recommendations which they say would address the current crisis and substantially reduce fuel poverty in the UK over the course of the next decade.

Among these is that the government should increase the amount it invests in upgrading the energy efficiency of fuel-poor homes in England from the £500 million a year it currently spends to £2 billion a year.

They also say that because the issue "spans energy, income, housing, and health", there should be newly-refreshed cross-departmental action plans and strategies that recognise the complex and intersectional nature of fuel poverty.