Fuel Poverty – Definition

I cam across a new concept in economics today. The idea of fuel poverty. This is defined as needing to spend 10% or more of income on energy. Using this definition there are 5.5 million people in the UK classified as being ‘poor’.

However, this figure may be set to rise as electricity and gas bills are set to rise. Oil prices are also continuing an unrelenting climb with some in OPEC warning of a $200 a barrel.

See: post on fuel prices and oil company profits