West Lothian - Fuel Poverty
Also in this section: | Deprivation|
Cold homes are linked to high rates of winter deaths, especially amongst older people. Heart attacks and strokes are also exacerbated by the cold. Cold damp homes are more likely to promote mould and fungi growth and to be linked to conditions such as asthma and bronchitis. Domestic accidents also tend to be more common in cold homes. In addition cold houses can lead to social exclusion as householders may be unlikely to invite friends home, resulting in an overall decline in quality of life. In some cases householders face a choice between heating their homes adequately or spending their money on other needs, such as a healthy diet. Cold homes can even affect childrens academic records as those in cold homes often don't have any space which is warm and quiet to study in.
Fuel Poverty in West Lothian - Using the Fuel Poverty Index (FPI)
The Scottish Fuel Poverty Indicator developed by Alembic Research and Energy Action Scotland is based on work originally undertaken by the University of Bristol and the Centre for Sustainable Energy.
Background
In April 2004, Communities Scotland published estimates of the percentage of fuel poor households in each Scottish authority derived from the 2002 Scottish House Condition Survey. These were useful in providing authorities with an indication of the magnitude of fuel poverty in their area, but did not provide an indication of where these fuel poor households may be located.
To attempt to provide more location specific information, Alembic Research examined the validity of using the 2001 Census data using the same methodology. The initial results were compared with the Communities Scotland estimates and cross-referenced against the ward results within the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD 2004). This demonstrated that the technique had validity in Scotland and that the process could assist local authorities in targeting fuel poverty initiatives within their areas. However, it was clear that the original FPI methodology could not be applied to Scottish local authorities using the 2001 Census data without some adjustment to the weightings assigned to the individual variables within the FPI method.
The original FPI report by University of Bristol and Centre of Sustainable Energy identified the following variables as the basis of calculating the FPI score for each local authority area:
- unemployed households
- under occupied households
- households with no access to a car
- households with no central heating
- single pensioner households
- lone parent households
- private renting households
- households with a disabled person (long term limiting illness
Using adjusted weightings, Alembic Research was able to apply the FPI to assess the percentage of fuel poor homes within each local authority ward and compare it with the ward mean i.e. assess whether the degree of fuel poverty within each ward was above or below the average for the local authority. Further work has now been carried out to calculate rates for each datazone.
There are three possible variants to the main index, which mainly apply to rural areas. One, excludes car ownership (as even poorer households require a car in rural areas), a second excludes under-occupancy (which may be skewed by the existence of empty holiday homes), and a third excludes both of these factors. The mapping included here is based on the main index.
Static Maps
West Lothian Data
Associated Documents
