Using Ethnography and Partnership Working to Tackle Fuel Poverty
Qualitative researchers in Wirral Council’s Public Health team used ethnography to see and hear how Wirral residents are affected by fuel poverty, including those that may be hidden from the national statistics on fuel poverty.
Insights gathered: February 2024 - November 2024
Insights gathered by
Qualitative Insight Team, Public Health, Wirral Council.
Aim
The aim of the research was to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges Wirral residents are facing around fuel poverty, and to understand what support would make a real difference to their lives. These residents' stories helped Wirral Council’s staff, local partners and stakeholders develop a collaborative approach to tackling fuel poverty.
People engaged with
The researchers spoke to 15 residents aged between 30 and 76. Residents lived across East and West Wirral, showing that fuel poverty is found in both Wirral’s most and least deprived areas.
Methods
In February 2024, the researchers used ethnography to see and hear how residents are affected by fuel poverty. The researchers visited four residents at their homes and spent the day observing and asking about their day-to-day activities, such as their energy use, mealtimes, and shopping. These case studies were used in a partner workshop to help attendees develop actions for tackling fuel poverty.
The actions were condensed into five categories:
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Maximising your income
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Improving the energy efficiency of your home
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Help managing your money and reducing your spending
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Help staying warm and well
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Help talking to your landlord and knowing your rights as a tenant
The researchers tested these five support options with 11 residents experiencing or at risk of fuel poverty. Residents were presented with five flashcards which they were asked to rank in order of priority, thinking about what would make the biggest difference to their lives.
Key insights
The residents described how fuel poverty was affecting many different aspects of their lives, such as their health and wellbeing, finances, housing conditions, and family relationships. They also showed the ways they save energy and money, such as using LED lighting, switching off boilers, and limiting the quality or quantity of meals.
11 out of the 15 participants lived in housing with energy efficiency ratings of C or above, meaning they would not meet the criteria of England’s current fuel poverty measure. This highlights the limitations that national measures pose when trying to understand the lived experiences of residents. Instead, qualitative insights can be used to uncover the breadth of the issue.
Broadening our definition of ‘fuel poverty’ provided insights into the lives of our residents who are overlooked by national measures. For example, residents struggling in our affluent areas revealed the challenges they face heating large homes, keeping up with appearances, and having reservations about or limited understanding of the benefits system.
Residents’ preferences for support included:
Maximising income
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Help knowing what benefits and grants they are entitled to.
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Help with applications (due to dyslexia, literacy, and digital exclusion).
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Help finding employment that is flexible enough for their health conditions and childcare needs.
Improving energy efficiency
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Energy saving tips and clarity on what is good/bad practice.
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Help managing and preventing mould and damp (need to raise awareness of health dangers).
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Home repairs and adaptations (affording repairs, identifying suitable adaptations and grants, or getting the landlord to follow through on work). For example, double glazing and damp courses had improved health.
Managing money and reducing spending
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Some residents felt they didn't need help managing money because they already spend as little as possible.
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Others would like to build their confidence around budgeting, debts, or managing the impact of recent changes to their income.
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Help talking to energy suppliers about managing energy debts.
Keeping warm and well
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For example, subsidised gym memberships, winter hampers, activities for children, support focused on people with arthritis, advocacy, and better advertising of support available.
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Some residents were unsure what this support could look like, but they asked the Council to do what they could to reduce the cost of living.
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Some residents had pressing issues such as eviction notices, overcrowding, relationship breakdowns, or health concerns. These took priority over their concerns about energy and so their preferences for support were directed at relieving the stress of these situations.
Talking to your landlord and knowing your rights
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Advocacy when talking to landlords (most private landlords were easy to contact, but some residents felt disrespected or ignored).
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Residents' families were stepping in to communicate with landlords or to complete repairs.
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Despite concerns about their landlords, this support option tended to be the lowest priority.
Quotes
“We’ve got sensor lights, so they only stay on enough for you to walk past or to go to the bathroom, and they’re all USB chargeable, so we charge them up in the car, and that saves us a little bit as well.”
“I wish someone would just say, look, I think you’re entitled to this, this is how you can go about doing it, if you need any help filling out forms, I'll give you some help. But I don’t know who that is.”
How have the insights been used/shared?
The insights were used to develop a winter preparedness campaign and commissioning of a comprehensive fuel poverty service in collaboration with a variety of internal and external stakeholders.
The research project won the LARIA Research Impact Award 2024 for ‘Best Use of Local Area Research’.
The research was also presented at Fuel Poverty Research Network’s 2024 conference called Putting Fuel Poverty Research into Practice.
Online links
Further information about Wirral's fuel poverty service and investment in local services to support residents experiencing fuel poverty can be found here: https://wirralview.com/healthy-and-independent/fuel-poverty-service-save-ps200k-struggling-households