New digital archive focuses on how to keep homes warm
Posted on 26 November 2012
Fuel poverty – where a household struggles to afford to keep the home warm or builds up fuel debts – is a growing concern across Europe according to PhD student Harriet Thomson, who leads the EU Fuel Poverty Network.
Fuel poverty is likely to be a policy problem for countries across the European Union
Harriet Thomson
The Network aims to promote discussion on fuel poverty across the EU and to raise awareness of the main causes and solutions. The new comprehensive resource will help researchers to quickly and effectively share their work and ideas.
Harriet Thomson, from the University’s Department of Social Policy and Social Work, said: “Fuel poverty is likely to be a policy problem for countries across the European Union, particularly at a time of rising fuel prices and decreasing household spending power, coupled with increasing vulnerability to climate change.
“The inability to afford to heat the home adequately is particularly pronounced across Eastern and Southern European states, with over 30 per cent of households in Portugal, Bulgaria and Cyprus declaring this inability, suggesting fuel poverty is found beyond the UK and the Republic of Ireland, two countries that have traditionally been associated with this phenomenon.”
The development of a digital resource archive – which will include peer-reviewed academic literature, policy documents and legislative records - is funded through a grant from the eaga Charitable Trust, an independent fuel-poverty grant-giving trust based in the UK.
Visitors to the EU Fuel Poverty Network website are able to search for documents by key word and country. Visit www.fuelpoverty.eu/findresource/
Notes to editors:
- For further information on the EU Fuel Poverty Network visit www.fuelpoverty.eu
- For more information on the University of York’s Department of Social Policy and Social Work visit www.york.ac.uk/spsw/
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