FPRN bulletin – 16th April 2025


16 April 2025

The FPRN email bulletin is a semi-regular email highlighting a handpicked selection of recently published research and other knowledge outputs in the area of fuel/energy poverty from around the world. The aim is to share this emerging knowledge more widely and to help generate discussion across the network.

If you have any issues accessing the below articles, or you have articles, research or other information we could share, please contact newsletter@fuelpovertyresearch.net

Home Stretch: How to make energy efficiency upgrades affordable for all homeowners
Jonny Tatam-Hall; Zoe Guijarro; Lutfor Rahman; Bea Adam-Day; Benedict Guindi; Ioan Williams; Tilly Prestridge (2025)
 Report  Open Access 

This report explores how to make retrofit more affordable given significant concerns by households about the cost of improvements. A number of recommendations are presented including that government could fully fund upgrades for low-income homeowners in the worst performing housing, grants tapered by household income and government-back low interest loans.

Building Support: Improving consumers' experiences of energy efficiency schemes
Naomi Schraer (2025)
 Report  Open Access 

This Citizens Advice report explores how to improve consumers’ experiences of energy efficiency schemes. The report identifies the need to boost awareness, make the processes more consistent and to provide independent and personalised advice.

Energy Costs and Canadian Households - How Much Are We Spending? (pdf)
Elmira Aliakbari; Kevin Chan (2025)
 Report  Open Access 

This study analyzes energy spending by Canadian households and the state of energy poverty in Canada. Findings include that in 2021, 6.2% of Canadian households were classified as energy poor based solely on within-the-home energy expenses, up from 4.7% in 2019.

Why neighbors matter in the energy transition: The diffusion of social practices, technologies, and knowledge between municipalities
M.C. LaBelle; T. Szép; G. Tóth (2025)
 Academic Paper  Open Access 

This article explores Hungary as a case study to examine the role of spatial dependency for the household energy mix. The results find that spatial location has a significant impact on household energy use and households with a similar energy mix are spatially concentrated which indicates a greater need for spatially concentrated and localized energy policies for the just energy transition.

Improving our homes to fight fuel poverty, what's the reality? (YouTube)
Fuel Poverty Action; Steve Harper; John Handford; Matt Fawcett; Jonathan Bean (2025)
 Video 

This presentation discusses what households can do to lower bills, and reduce damp, cold, and mould. Topics covered include electrification, and the benefits and risks of investing in heat pumps, solar and batteries.

The impact of energy poverty on the health capital of middle-aged and older adult residents in rural China
Cuiting Yu; Tianrun Li; Qin Wan (2025)
 Academic Paper  Open Access 

This study investigates how energy poverty impacts health capital, using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. The findings indicate that energy poverty has a significant negative impact on health capital of older residents which has implications for policy intervention improvements.

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