More than 700,000 people in England and Wales lack central heating, ONS figures show

More than 700,000 people in England and Wales lack central heating in their homes this winter, new figures show.

This equates to 367,000 households that are not using gas or electricity to warm their homes, data collated by the Office of National Statistics revealed.

Each year there are about 10,000 excess deaths on average from cold and damp homes, and charities have warned that it is often elderly people who have to live in these inadequate properties.

It comes after The Independent reported that an increasing number of people are turning to online crowdfunding to keep themselves warm.

Figures from the online platform GoFundMe show that there has been a 680 per cent increase year-on-year in people mentioning “energy bill” or “energy bills” in their fundraisers – rising from tens to hundreds of campaigns.

England had a higher proportion of households with no central heating compared to Wales, and across both nations, the local authority with the highest proportion of homes in this position was the Isle of Scilly – where 17.5 per cent of houses did not have central heating.

The national survey showed that 233,000 households in England and Wales used at least one renewable energy source to heat their homes.

Reacting to the figures, Holly Holder, deputy director for homes at the Centre for Ageing Better, said: “The number of homes without central heating in England is truly shocking.

“We have among the worst and least efficient homes in Western Europe and often it is older people who have to reside in these sub-par properties.

“The life and death implications of this are really being seen now as we enter the bracing cold of mid-winter at the height of a cost of living crisis.”

She said that previous attempts to tackle fuel poverty have “lacked the ambition and the reach required to tackle it effectively”.

She urged: “We need a national retrofit programme to make homes warmer, safer and more energy efficient. Having central heating and effective insulation should be the fundamental basics anybody should expect from a home.”

Some 36 per cent of households with children are struggling to afford their energy bills, according to a survey of over 200 adults by Comparethemarket.

During the December cold snap, health officials advised the public at the time to heat their living rooms during the day and bedrooms before going to sleep. The UK Health and Security Agency (UKHSA) said that as well as heating your most-used rooms to at least 18C, “several layers of thinner clothing will keep you warmer than one thicker layer”.

The ONS figures also showed that more people own a car or a van than they did 10 years ago.

At least 23.3 per cent of households didn’t own a car or a van in 2021, down from 25.6 per cent in 2011.

The number of households with only one vehicle was also down from 42.2 per cent in 2011 to 41.3 per cent in 2021. However, the number of families with two or three cars had increased. 2.3 million households now own three or more cars or vans, up from 1.7 million in 2021.