FUEL POVERTY

The development of a Fuel Poverty Indicator for Wales will enable a better understanding of the distribution of fuel poor households, using mapping facilities, to provide predictions of the incidence of fuel poverty in each electoral division in Wales. Modelling the Welsh Fuel Poverty Indicator will involve the creation of a synthetic model using both 1991 Census and 1996 WHCS survey data. Logistic regression will be used to identify a weighted combination of census variables which, together, provide a good proxy for fuel poverty. These variables will then be used to estimate the numbers and characteristics of Welsh households in fuel poverty and disaggregate these estimates to small-area level.