All Bournemouth, Dorset and Poole local authorities and Plymouth City Council recently used DEAC's services to complete their NI 187 work.

NI 187 is the new national indicator for fuel poverty.  Fuel Poverty is the term used to describe households who need to spend more than 10% of their income on heating and hot water in order to keep their properties at an adequate temperature.  This temperature, recommended by the World Health Organisation is between 18°C and 21°C.

NI187 measures the proportion of households on income related benefits for whom an energy assessment of their housing has been carried out and have a SAP of below 35 or greater than 65.

SAP (Standard Assessment Performance) is a measure of the energy efficiency of a property, it considers thermal characterstics of the property including fabric, ventilation and heating.

The procedure for reporting on NI 187 involves surveying at least 400 households in receipt of income related benefits.  Around 2000 surveys were sent out in each area, those that were returned have been entered into various prize draws.  The data was then input into the DEFRA software for each council.

This data is used by councils to prioritise areas of action and funding with the aim of reducing fuel poverty. 

Find out more about NI 187

Find out more about SAP