§ Simon HughesTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many fuel poverty households there are in each London authority area; and what her estimate is of the number of children living in fuel poverty households. [135164]
§ Mr. TimmsI have been asked to reply.
The available information from the English House Condition Survey indicates that in 2001, there were 148,000 fuel poor households in London. This is based on fuel poverty defined as occurring when a household needs to spend more than 10 per cent. of its income (including housing benefit and income support for mortgage interest) on all fuels in order to maintain a satisfactory heating regime.
More detailed breakdowns for the London area are not available as the sample size for the survey is not large enough to enable reliable detailed regional estimates of fuel poverty to be produced.
In England in 2001 there were 1.7 million households in fuel poverty. Of these, 210,000 contained children.
These figures are available at: www.dti.gov.uk/energy/ consumers/fuel_poverty/index. shtml